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....

On being a foreigner.

Yesterday night was the first time my English-speaking baby has realized that i have an accent when i speak English. We were talking about Scooby Doo and i was saying something about his friend Wendy when Leo said:
-Mommy, its Wendy, not Vendy.
-Thats what i said, Leo, Wendy.
(Looking at me with amusement) No Mommy, its Wendy!
-Yes, Wendy.
(Starting to laugh) It Wendy Mommy!
-Thats what im saying! Wendy!
(Leo, bursting out laughing) Wendy Wendy Wendy!!!
(me,irritatedly) Wendy Wendy Wendy!
Leo laughs so had he falls off the sofa and i stomp into the kitchen. Its tough being a foreigner! Even your own 4 year old laughs at your accent.

Another Friday

Im tired today, tired and sort of .. melancholic. Unity was up pretty much throughout the night and was very grumpy in the morning... It was sad i didnt get to say goodbye to her properly because my mother is picking them both tonight and keeping them for a weekend, because we have to work Sat and probably Sunday. It is gonna be Unity's first weekend way and im worried sick how she will react to the whole thing.. I have packed enough clothes to last them at least a week without changing and tried to foresee every eventuality, getting all sorts of food and drinks and snacks and Calpol and dummies and blankies , you get the idea. Its weird, because im usually quite calm about my children, like i dont drop everything and run everytime there is some scuffle or fall, unless it sound really serious. And here i am, literally making myself ill because my baby is going to her grandma's for 2 nights. Like my mother said, its gonna be how its gonna be. And breathe...
So we were supposed to get these "extremely important deadline Tuesday morning" images and guess what, we are still sitting twiddling our thumbs ( well im writing this blog of course) and nothing is happening because photographers are probably most unreliable people on the planet (oh, and art directors, they may be worse, its a close one) so we are not getting any images until tomorrow morning. And that means we will have to work Sunday, and so no ironing done, or cooking or any proper knitting time for that matter... Why do i do this job anyway, someone remind me...
I managed to get Nicola, my colleague, interested in yarn dyeing and she loves the idea. Being wonderful as she is she go me and herself a book on natural dye plants, called A Dyers Garden by Rita Buchanan. Nicola is a keen gardener and i like the idea of gardening, never having time to do any. But next year i will (i will i will i will ) have a vegetable garden and at least a couple of dye plants. Now its just how to convince Colin to allocate some space for me in our 150' garden... Last time i spoke with him about it he frowned and said i could have the 5' patch between garage and shed. To which i meaningfully and articulately told him that i'm planning to plant p-o-t-a-t-o-e-s and need s-p-a-c-e. He frowned some more and said he'll think about it. So i guess i just have to remind him every week or so before the planting time comes. And im so looking forward to my yarn spinning class, its gonna be my birthday present for myself. Month later than the birthday, but hey, better late than never.

Another weekend

Im happy to report that i have survived this weekend, even though i did have my doubts if i would. And i even did most of my chores, including washing (a lot) ironing (a lot) and cooking. On Sunday we had guests in, new people from the meeting, with their three children, all boys. It was another attempt on our part to accuire friends with children and something in common with us. And I'd personally say it was a success. But i guess we'll see that if they invite us back or attempt to meet up again. I made a lime garlic ginger chicken hotpot and a pecan roll. Here is a picture of the roll:
It split on the side but it still was yummy. They had wine, we had tea. Children watched Star Wars. We talked about cabaret, Barry Long, Buddhism and local schools.

We have finally done the Batparty invitations, so im quite looking forward to making Batcookies and Batcake for Leo (Batman,) birthday on Sunday. I know one boy will come for sure (our next door neighbour), I hope the rest will come too.. It would be good for us to meet other parents as well, we have been living in South London for a year and a half now, but made only very few friends. Working full time does not help with social life...

Aanyway, i took Leo to the hospital today for his ear check up, and unfortunately he is not better so they will have to put grommets in, its a small operation that i was told was quite routine. Didnt stop me from feeling terribly sorry for him and tearfully pressing him to my chest with a big hug. Aaaah poor baby. He was so good in a waiting room as well... Sniff sniff sob... :0(
Oh by the way, grommets are little tubes that are put through the ear drum to help hearing and stabilize the pressure. Hospital put us on a waiting list, they will let us know when they have a date for the operation. On a positive i'd have to stay at home with him for a week after that, and
it is considered a sick leave and not a holiday so i dont loose my holiday days. My mother just gave me "Baking with children" book so we can make a lot of cakes and cookies with Leo. It will be great.
Just to finish this post on the positive, here is a video of Unity walking. She falls in the end, but she didnt cry and was very brave, got up and walked on. All together now: Aaaaaaaaah!

Cycling pic

And thats me on my little Dahon. I love my little bike, it is very fast, despite having 20" wheels.
At the moment it is in the garage looking all dismembered, because my dear husband got me some new tires (which was sweet) because my back tire has a massive hole in it, left by a shred of glass. Only the thing is that he got a wrong size tires! And he only realized that after he took my old tires off.... So hence i had to change into civil clothes and take a bus and a train like all the normal people do. I guess the good thing was i could knit on the way to work, but i still hate commuting, it just takes forever and i feel like my freedom to move is morbidly restricted by train times and such.
Aaanyway, i am so close to completing Birthday Drops vest for my mother i just might finish it before Sunday, which would be nice. Oh, and my Rowan Bamboo Tape pattern booklet has arrived, giving me a lot of inspiration. Surprisingly enough Colin got very excited about the idea of making yarn out of bamboo, thats his latest craze - bamboo and more bamboo. He just got some black bamboo to go to our front garden. When i weakly protested that it grows up to
50' tall so will eventually stop any sunshine getting to the front of the house, he enthused that it will be just like living in a jungle. In a semi detached house in southeast London. Oh well, Russians say let children play so that they dont cry...
I was spending a lot of time on Ravelry again, as you do, chatting to more people. I love all that discussion board stuff you know. I even started a new thread and it had fantastic response.
Sweet baby Unity has started her nursery this week. She is doing great, they said she loved it. They give us like these little sheets of paper where it says what she did and what she ate, it was so sweet. I can just see her sitting there on a little chair like a big girl and eating cheesy mush and baked beans with a spoon. She is off today though because she is having her MMR immunization. I hope she takes it well, poor baby.