Month: May 2006

Phoenix Dance

John and I went to see Stories in Red the current Phoenix Dance production at the WYP last night. John has gone a couple of times before, but with Cindy, so I’ve never seen them before.

It was quite strange, and very gripping. Some of the dances didn’t have much of what I would think of as “dancing” in them, but that is probably just my ignorance! We saw Jeanetta, who used to teach John dance, and John would like to go back, as long as Isaac will go too. That’s a result in itself.

Toby’s New Job

Well that didn’t take long!!

It isn’t really a new job, because it’ll still be at the newsagent’s. Two hours from 6am to 8am on Saturday and Sunday morning working in the shop sorting out papers, serving customers and other things – it’ll become clearer what exactly when he starts – tomorrow morning.

Toby says that the best thing is that as he won’t be ruining his bike by using it to deliver papers, and ruining it, he can get a nice new mountain bike.

Paper Round

Toby is feeling rather agrieved this morning, as the papershop where he has diligently and very reliably done a paper round for the last 2 years has changed hands (again – that’s twice since Christmas) and are stopping deliving papers. From next Monday. So he’ll be out of a job. I expect that for a short while the lie in will nice, but it’ll soon be out weighed by the lack of money.

It seems very short sighted of the shop – they can’t expect to sell all the papers that they deliver at the moment. Surely not everyone will get up, get a paper, and then go home to read it?

Actually I am fired as of today – that’s zero days notice! Oh well I find a new job soon

Toby

Like Two Old Crocks

Played badminton with Simon at lunch time today. He’d cycled into a lamppost and had a very sore and stiff shoulder and, for some reason, I’d woken up with a stiff and aching back. So we shuffled about the court and neither of us played very well. Still fun though.

Toby was trying to coach me this morning – “What could you do to get better?” I don’t want to have to think about it, I just like playing (but if it meant I won more often…)

Lal & Pauline’s Second Anniversary

We went over to Lal and Pauline’s today. Last year they had fantastic weather, but unfortunately it was grey and drizzly today. Still a lovely afternoon though. They’d got a bouncy castle for the children to play on, and even though it was damp and cold, Toby, John and Rose all enjoyed it. Toby as enjoyed making very knowledgeable comments while watching the FA cup.

Visiting Will

Will is off work at the moment because of an operation to his knee. He damaged it playing football – I knew those rough games were a bad idea! I went to visit him today while the children were at school.

He gave me details of our half term holiday at one of the Center Parcs in Holland, which looks really fun. He also showed me all the family tree information that he’s been entering onto his computer. So far he’s put on the stuff that was researched by both of our grandfathers. This goes quite a long way back and also spreads out wide to include “interesting” people like Ben Nicholson and the Sackville-Wests. Then it’ll need updating with two generations worth of children. Then all the foreign relatives need their sections including. THEN he can get onto the interesting part of seeing if he can discover anything new. It seems to be much easier nowdays, with all the information on the web, than it was a couple of decades ago, when you had to visit places and look in old books. Not as atmospheric perhaps. He’s put what he’s done so far on a genealogy website.

What a Glorious Day

I’m sure it’s mainly the weather, but I’ve had a lovely day today. It was really warm and sunny and made me feel very cheerful.

I went to yoga at lunch time. There were only four of us there, and Rob looked around and said “As you’re all quite experienced,” (I was feeling good already) “we’ll have an energetic session.” And it was. It left me feeling very stretched and energised, ready for the rest of the day and weekend.

I was supposed to be playing squash with Mark in the afternoon, and after that yoga I’m sure I’d have beaten him, but he was being sick. So instead I played croquet with Lance and very civilised it was too. I got the children from school and chatted in the sun for a while before going to Lance and Mary’s. John had his first swimming lesson, so we had a good cycle across Hob Moor.

In the evening, I went to the theatre with Jackie. We went to see Foxes, a play about asylum seekers in Leeds.

Work, Play, Food

I think I’ve picked up some work this morning. Someone that Simon knows wants to withdraw her children from Tregelles and teach them at home. Except that she doesn’t actually want to teach them herself, so it looks like I’ll be teaching them three mornings a week from next academic year. Slightly odd situation, but it should be fairly straightforward work.

Then this afternoon, I went with Rose’s class to watch an adaption of Journey to the River Sea at the Theatre Royal. It was very imaginatively done, but the story was quite hard to follow (I don’t know it) and Rose said they missed out some of the best bits!

Rose and John went off swimming with Gemma this evening, and Toby and I had the lovely soup at a reasonable time. By the time they got back from swimming, Rose was too tired really to eat, so she’ll be starving in the morning.

Lunch Out

More washing!! Another three loads washed, sorted and away today. Just about back to normal after Turkey and the Lake District.

I went for a long run this morning and my legs are aching now. I haven’t been running for about a month, I’ve done a lot of yoga and played squash and badminton though.

I had a lovely lunch at the City Screen with Michelle today. She had been to the Star Inn, Harome with Mark and her boys for her birthday, so we compared notes on its deliciousness!! My meal there with Cindy last February is definitely about the best meal I’ve ever had. In fact the whole experience was wonderful. Michelle was equally impressed by the food, but didn’t stay the night. Quite fancy a trip back myself. Anyone fancy a £50 lunch?

Roast guinea fowl for tea, the butchers had a couple in, so I thought I’d try one. Nice – stronger chicken, and the butcher’s chickens are not good, so this was definitely a better alternative. I think tomorrow I’m going to do the pea and feta soup that I had with my mum.

Pea and lemon soup with feta black pepper

Frozen peas are fine to use – especially the sweet little petits pois – and are among the best vegetable sources of fibre and protein, and also contain vitamin C, iron and zinc. Serves 4.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
800g/1lb 10oz peas
1 small round lettuce, leaves separated and washed
1 litre/1¾ pints hot chicken or vegetable stock
grated rind and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
75g/3oz feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces
a few fresh mint leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion, chilli and garlic for five minutes until softened.
  • Add the peas, lettuce leaves and hot stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes until the peas are tender.
  • Take off the heat and, using a hand-held blender, roughly blitz until coarsely pureed. Stir in the lemon rind and juice and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
  • Ladle into bowls and scatter over the feta and mint leaves.