It's all relative

It's been a while since I felt like how I felt this morning - extremely ill! My own fault of course - if I'd gone to bed when R did I'd've been fine, but for some reason I didn't. I stayed up, drank the rest of my glass of wine and the full one he'd left and watched reruns of True Blood. sigh.

However having dragged meself out of bed at lunchtime - thanks for letting the dog jump all over me at 9am, by the way! - I an pleased to say the old work ethic is still going strong. I've changed the bed, sorted out the washing (and done a couple which have dried quite nicely in this weather), walked the dogs twice and been to the supermarket. Whee! My fabby life! Anyway, I feel fine now and appreciate it more than normal!

I did try a wee bit sunbathing too, but it's the usual story - within 2 minutes of the blanket going down I've been pushed to one side, Murphy's stretched out down the middle and Maddie across the top. This turns into a fight between the two of them over a tennis ball with guess who? - yes me - in the middle! No rest for the wicked..

reports continued

forgot to say that our one report of dog behaviour during our absence has been that Maddie "got a chicken"!!! No idea where, how or why yet.

Murphy in the meantime seems to be adopting terrorist tactics in the carpark at the woods we go to in the mornings. Last week he didn't let this guy get out his car before running over and plonking his two big paws on the car door, eyeballing him through the window. Had to drag him away and let the guy out - profuse apologies (from me)

On Friday there he let his next victim open the door then launched himself at her, practically sitting on her in her car.. oops! She seemed to know him and had another retriever in her car so clearly used to the scenario, luckily. More apologies while I dragged him away to start the walk. Honestly! What's his game? It's not like I don't feed him enough!

reports from the South...

well here I am travelling the country again - Brighton this time, so hubby could relive (or try and remember) his youth...

Needless to say, cue the necessary visit to the vet before we go (no, not for us - the cat's not so well , we always seem to have some animal-related panic before we go anywhere) so poor Nick got left with the task of ensuring a quarter-tablet went down and stayed down the throat of our pill-averse pussy twice a day (with food) . Haven't yet heard how he got on but she'd eaten round it at two meals already before we left so no high hopes!

Anyway - we arrived in Gatwick and made it to middle England (somewhere in Surrey I believe, I just got off the train when told) to meet up woth R's cousin. Turned out R hadn't been at his most expansive when making the arrangements (really? you do surprise me!) so poor Lisa had no idea I was coming too and turned up at the station in a two-seater!

After initial confusion we made him walk to the pub while we drove...

Anyway, we had a nice time in Brighton, the weather pretty good, hotel nice if noisy - honestly, I though Aberdeen seagulls were bad, these ones were even worse! Just for noise at night though, no dive-bombing noticed.

It was pretty busy, especially at night and I've never seen so many policemen wandering around! They keep a very high profile it seems, at least on Friday & saturday nights (but seeing the number of drinking teens, 20s and 30s I can see why). Strangely I mentioned this to the taxidriver and he didn't agree (the no. of them around), guess he's never been to Aberdeen then!

R leabnered a valuable lesson - we went for a drink to a bar/hotel along from the hotel and he was addressed as "sweetheart" by the barman, much to his surprise. It wasn't til we left that I noticed the rainbow flag flying - R didn't know what it meant, hee hee. Soon learned...

repercussions

oh dear - the pasta-thon is kicking back. I've had a strained neck ever since and am now taking painkillers - it's low level but very wearing. I keep telling R cooking's bad for me...

The good news is my bump on the head from trying to knock myself out with a car door is improving - I don't look quite so neanderthal now!

worth the effort?

Feelis like I just had a marathon cooking weekend! Had pasta'n sauce & garlic bread on Saturday, with a slight difference - I made the pasta. I've made it an Italian cookery class before but that was many years ago, so I turned to Nick Nairn's book which I'm finding time consuming but easy to follow (and the food is undeniably good). Naturally I already have a pasta machine (what self-respecting would-be cook doesn't have one, stashed unused somewhere in the back of a cupboard?!) so R & I made up a team - I made the dough and when it was ready (you have to let it (& yourself!) "rest" for an hour) he wound the handle while I fed it through the rollers.

So, as our tagliatelle on Saturday was pretty successful I decided to go ahead with the ravioli for Sunday dinner, at which Emily & Nick would both be present. Well! First of all, don't let your husband anywhere near the cookery books - R found another filling he liked the sound of (crabmeat & mascarpone) better than the one I was doing (butternut squash) so I had to do both. Plus as I wasnt' sure how many people were going to be there I did double the amount. Phew... I started at 11.30am and finished at 4.30pm!!!

What with the dough making, making the fillings while it rested, then the rolling-out (and dragging R away from the golf for these!), the filling and the cutting. Then the initial cooking followed by laying-out, covering in oiled clingfilm and finding space in the fridge... After which I had about an hour's collapse on the sofa then back to cooking it all and freezing the ones I hadn't cooked, making two different butter sauces etc...

oh yes and I made a trifle for dessert too, which R won't have seconds of til I get some Flake to put on the top!

Don't get me wrong I actually enjoyed most of it, and you get a feeling of satisfaction from having done all that but in the end given that that was basically half my weekend used up, I think next time I'll stick to bought pasta. Or just pasta shapes without the filling, cutting etc..

Still - that's me surely crowned domestic goddess for now?! (and it gets you out the dogwalking)

O-M-G! It's happened!

No - I haven't run out of Diet Coke - well actually I have but I'm keeping the panic at bay. No - I've turned into my mother!!!!!!

Richard asked the other day how I could keep the kitchen so clean & tidy and yet the rest of the house was a tip. I rubbished this, of course (it's not like he's not responsible for half the stuff lying around - well almost half - well at least some), but I have just looked round and you know what? He's right!

Cue memories of Mum's kitchen with piles of folded plastic bags and as-yet-unread magazines teetering on every surface except the (spotless) food preparation counters and Dad exasperatedly trying to find space for something..

ooooh dear....

Maddie has fun

and here is a short film of what happens when Maddie gets excited! As you can see towards the end, Murphy strolls out to see what's going on and she makes a beeline - "play with me!" As often happens, the answer is "no"!

further report

Well this time on holiday there were no sheep issues; we were very careful and put the terrible twosome on the lead as soon as we heard any baaing! And sometimes even when there wasn't...

Unfortunately Maddie did manage to create a chicken incident but on the plus side I was inside making the dinner at the time with the radio on and a glass of wine to hand, so missed all the excitement (for a change). It seems the chickens were out in their wee coop and clucking away on the last day - for the first time we'd been around. Maddie decided to go and investigate. Despite Murphy's known record of chicken-chasing (Richard & the farmer were left with an empty collar one day at that farm/stables in Kirkcudbright) he decided he couldn't be bothered, so stood faithfully by Richard and watched as Maddie made havoc.

By the time Richard got into the pen, the feathers were flying, the three owners were out and milling and the attacker had one of the winged victims in her mouth! Although as it turned out only feathers were lost  she obviously didn't have too good a grip. Murphy then followed into the pen and stood looking superior while the dastardly dog was detained. I met them at the door to see a very embarassed Richard leading a not-noticeably-chastened spaniel by the collar up the path. oooops

Apparently the pen usually has an electric fence but it wasn't on - shame, that would have taught her a lesson - maybe, R says she sailed over the fence without touching it so maybe not!

we're b-a-a-a-a-a-ck!

A week in Devon and nearly a week (well it felt like it) travelling there and back. Some great walks, decent weather (it only rained when we'd finished) and excellent pubs (dog friendly, yeah!) Took us a while to get used to the country roads, particularly in the hills where we were staying. Picture a road only just wide enough for a car, with ten-foot high hedges on either side, and all very steep. There were passing places occasionally, or else "convenient" driveways or entrances to try to cram yourself into while the other person inched past, waving cheerily...

Funniest memory - letting the dogs out for their "last thing at night" toilet stop. It was CHUCKING it down outside. They both leapt to their feet and rushed off to the front door, only to screech to a halt when I opened it and they could see/hear the torrents. Maddie promply backed off while Murphy took a cautious step outside (remaining under the overhang), thought long and hard about it and then turned round and came back in. "No way!"

On our return as we approached the border, the rain set in. sigh. 22 & sun splitting the sky at lunch in Carlisle, 14 and rain at dinner in Aberdeen (having rained and got steadily colder all the way) See the photo - this was our view as we approached Scotland - the cloud line almost exactly matched the border. I'm not joking!