Saturday, August 29, 2009

On why it is dangerous to be sick

I have been discovering of late how dangerous it is to spend time home, sick, with nothing to do...
Now, normally I would be thinking of food if I was stuck at home, however, at the moment, I am not particularly food-enamoured, so have focused on yarn instead.

Short version is I have been off work for weeks with a chest infection, which, according to the latest blood test, is in fact pneumonia.

I finally made it back to work for a semi-respectable amount of time this week. That is, I managed 3 days at about 5 hours each. That was quite enough. I found that the best indication that it was time to go home was when I got the shakes (in my legs, sitting down). Not to mention the fact that I had to quaff huge amounts of caffeine just to stay awake and semi function and I am still sleeping about 15 hours or so a day whilst in recovery mode.

But the good news for the week was I finally received confirmation that I have a new job (yay), which I start in two weeks.

What I am really dreading is all the work I am going to have to do before I leave. It kind of drives me nuts - I have been sick since early July, and seriously, most of my work (though must confess I did do some at home, even though I was told more than once not to) has been piling up (I will admit that the super urgent things have been done in my absence, but I am a bit pissy cos when some other people are off, their entire workload gets redistributed - when I am off, I have to do it all when I come back. At times like this, when I am so sick that I struggle to walk from the first floor of my home to the ground floor (and forget actually going back up again if I forgot something) it really isn't worth taking sick leave as I spent nearly all my time off stressing about how much work I had to do, and the fact that when I came back I would still have to do it all, and now I have two weeks in which to do about 10 weeks' work (hmmmmmmmm - why do I get the feeling that it just isn't going to get done?)

I had great hopes that this next post would be all about the yarn, but after the last few days of this week (ie when I was at work) which were absolutely beautiful sunny days, Saturday was overcast/raining. Which means I couldn't take photos of all the new yarn. Might have to wait for next weekend. And this comes back to where I started - I have LOTS of new yarn since I have been home and haven't had much to do (well, OK, I did do work and I took the time to get quite friendly with the mailman - seriously, anyone facing me at 8.30 am in jammies and/or bathrobe deserves friendly at the very least) but hit the net.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I have had 3 comments!!!

Can't believe it - went in today to discover 3 people have read my blog (1 I already knew about, but the other 2 were a surprise). More to the point, they read it and actually left a comment, so I am feeling very priveleged.

At the request of one of the commenters, I will now talk about my love affair with food / cooking. I love food - I will eat anything put in front of me (I do draw the line at rollmops for some reason, so I am very careful never to have them put in front of me), but other than that, absolutely anything - I am a "try anything once" kind of person in the food department. I do like to try new fruits or vegetables that I see at the grocer - this week's acquisition was black sapote, aka chocolate pudding fruit (other than the colour, I fail to see the analogy). Something I won't be rushing out to buy again, let us say.

My adventuresome nature also extends to my cooking. I read somewhere once that most people only ever cook something like the same 10 recipes, so I vowed to buck the trend. My main speciality is baking and desserts, but do also like cooking savoury, and in that department I do have repeat favourites. I make a killer lasagne and to-die-for osso bucco; tuscan bread soup; baked beans; ham hocks, cabbage with apple and caraway, the list goes on. Basically things I can put together without a recipe (not to say I don't use one if I want it to be 'just right', but often tweaked), usually requiring long, slow cooking, with a kick-ass result.

On the baking front, I make the absolute best brownies in the world (not my opinion, as it happens, as I am not a chocolate cake fan - though even I will concede they are amazing). I discovered the recipe years ago, and it has been a zealously guarded secret ever since (you know I really like you if I let you have my brownie recipe, and only then only if you promise never to give it to anyone else on pain of death). It is neither a cakey or fudgy brownie (for those brownie afficianados who classify their brownies) - it is in a league of its own. I am, however, happy to direct you to the second best brownie recipe in the world (although I do have a fabulous recipe - [BTW, did I also mention my brownie recipe is the easiest in the world - the hardest part being lining the tin and there is also next to no washing up afterwards, which makes it a triple winner as far as I am concerned ]. I am never loathe to try other brownie recipes. Most of them are truly abysmal...) (back to second best brownie recipe...) It can be found on the blog site of one of my favourite authors, Robin McKinley (I will try and put link in here - not sure if it will work....http://www.robinmckinleysblog.com/recipes/?p=34) (if you don't know her already, and have the inclination, do try her books. It is one of my missions in life to tell everyone what a fabulous author she is, oh, and while I am at it, check out Diana Wynne Jones. Feel free to email me if you would like title recommendations).

And just to tempt the knitters out there - I hope my next blog will include a gallery of some of my latest yarn acquisitions - some of them are truly truly gorgeous.