Food, Friends and Fanservice
Well, another weekend hath rolled around bringing with it another kaleidoscope of events. OK, who am I trying to kid? ;)
Wednesday evening saw Pete bac in Lufbra to aid in cleaning up for our house inspection, and I have to say that by the end of the day the place was spotless. I was impressed at the work Ed, Pete and Pete's mum had put in, and a little miffed that I knew it's be impossible to keep like that.
In planning for Charlie's surprise party on the Thursday, Vicki and I had decided to make a strawberry cake using a recipe she'd found on the 'net. That was probably our first mistake. The second was that the recipe used American measurements and terminology, so we were guessing with half the stuff. Thirdly, we omitted a key ingredient- a block of jelly- because Charlie's a veggie and thus can't eat gelatine. And fourthly, we didn't have the right tools for the job (including a cake tin, which involved me nipping home to grab my cheesecake tin and getting caught in a storm- thanks to Graeme's mum for giving me a lift back to Vicki's!). The cake itself worked OK (though in hindsight probably could have done with another twenty minutes in the oven to rise fully), though our attempt at strawberry cream cheese icing was laughable. ;) We didn't have any icing sugar and thus used caster sugar instead, meaning we ended up with a sort of pink creamy fondant that tasted divine but wasn't likely to set to icing-like consistencies in the next week. In the end I went into town the next day and picked up a block of Regalice, which we stuck to the cake using the strawberry goo, attached more strawberries to the top of and drizzled with more of the goo. At least we remembered to eat something other than sugar- I botched a bit of shoarma together for snackage.
Despite the chaos that was our attempt at patissery, the cake went down well at the party on Thursday, though when we left Charlie still had half of it (plus the base of the cheesecake tin and one of Vicki's plates). Most of the revellers headed off after that to a barbeque being run by one of Charlie's coursemates, while Vicki and I headed back to hers to scour recipe books for the banquet she'd planned for the next day. We'd planned on ordering out for pizza, but failed to do so.
Friday rolled in- my last Friday in this office- and with the close of the working day I gathered the bits and pieces we'd need from our (technically my place now as Ed had moved the last of his stuff out and headed to Derby) place and headed to Vicki's. However, in the time it took me to walk around the corner to hers, most of the people she'd invited had cancelled. By the time I arrived Vicki was considerably miffed and more than a little miserable, probably with good enough reason. She decided she was feeling unsociable, so I headed back home, commandeered the world's most comfortable chair, watched movies and drank half a bottle of Riesling before getting an early night in preparation for Graeme moving in bright and early the next day.
That was the plan, at least. Delays at his end meant their purported 0930 arrival was more like 1045, annoying his mum who wanted to watch the F1GP Qualifying at 11. We got the last of his stuff in in record time, letting his mum go while we organised the rest of his stuff. By 3 he was pretty much done bar the books, for which we need massive quantities of bookshelfage, most probably in the lounge- Gods, we're going to look sophisticated, especially once I put the Da Vinci print back up too...
A somewhat-happier-than-Friday Vicki turned up at about 3pm and we mounted an expedition into town to raid Tylers, Argos and Sainsburys for stuff we would all need. We ended up using up the last of the steak bought for last Tuesday in creating a teriyaki-gyudon-type meal, which was pretty damned tasty. :)
Graeme headed into Leicester a little after that for Charlie and Richy's birthday bash at Retribution (he was planning on meeting Giles there), to which Vicki and I decided we couldn't be hedgehogged to go to. Instead, we decided to drink saké and watch movies. Rather than movies, we settled on watching the anime series Chobits (which Graeme has a bootleg DVD set of) end-to-end. We probably should have thought that through slightly better- it's a twenty-six episode series, giving a running length of about eleven hours.
Graeme and Ed returned around 3am and hung about for cerca half an hour before crashing out- apparently they'd had a good night, Graeme proving in his choice of songs to dance to that he is indeed the Goth he has been labelled. ;)
We finished our anime marathon around quarter to six, though I think it's fair to say that as the end approached neither Vicki nor I was capable of paying much attention to the TV. Once it was donedone I escorted her and her shopping home (the bits I could remember- found her quiches and cheese in the fridge this morning) before returning to crash out. As one can guess, Sunday was rather subdued. ;) Graeme headed out to Beefest at the Three Nuns, while I alternated watching anime and reading webcomics and Ed watched Return Of The King and its extras followed by The Last Samurai (I don't get that- he knows he hates the film, yet he still puts it on through choice?). Managed to do the washing up as my good deed for the day, though that was before Ed cooked... ;)
And thus we're now in Monday. Pub tonight, eight days left in the office and four days until the NIN gig. I'm in something of a good mood, really. :D
Countdown: 68 days until next NL holiday. :D
Wednesday evening saw Pete bac in Lufbra to aid in cleaning up for our house inspection, and I have to say that by the end of the day the place was spotless. I was impressed at the work Ed, Pete and Pete's mum had put in, and a little miffed that I knew it's be impossible to keep like that.
In planning for Charlie's surprise party on the Thursday, Vicki and I had decided to make a strawberry cake using a recipe she'd found on the 'net. That was probably our first mistake. The second was that the recipe used American measurements and terminology, so we were guessing with half the stuff. Thirdly, we omitted a key ingredient- a block of jelly- because Charlie's a veggie and thus can't eat gelatine. And fourthly, we didn't have the right tools for the job (including a cake tin, which involved me nipping home to grab my cheesecake tin and getting caught in a storm- thanks to Graeme's mum for giving me a lift back to Vicki's!). The cake itself worked OK (though in hindsight probably could have done with another twenty minutes in the oven to rise fully), though our attempt at strawberry cream cheese icing was laughable. ;) We didn't have any icing sugar and thus used caster sugar instead, meaning we ended up with a sort of pink creamy fondant that tasted divine but wasn't likely to set to icing-like consistencies in the next week. In the end I went into town the next day and picked up a block of Regalice, which we stuck to the cake using the strawberry goo, attached more strawberries to the top of and drizzled with more of the goo. At least we remembered to eat something other than sugar- I botched a bit of shoarma together for snackage.
Despite the chaos that was our attempt at patissery, the cake went down well at the party on Thursday, though when we left Charlie still had half of it (plus the base of the cheesecake tin and one of Vicki's plates). Most of the revellers headed off after that to a barbeque being run by one of Charlie's coursemates, while Vicki and I headed back to hers to scour recipe books for the banquet she'd planned for the next day. We'd planned on ordering out for pizza, but failed to do so.
Friday rolled in- my last Friday in this office- and with the close of the working day I gathered the bits and pieces we'd need from our (technically my place now as Ed had moved the last of his stuff out and headed to Derby) place and headed to Vicki's. However, in the time it took me to walk around the corner to hers, most of the people she'd invited had cancelled. By the time I arrived Vicki was considerably miffed and more than a little miserable, probably with good enough reason. She decided she was feeling unsociable, so I headed back home, commandeered the world's most comfortable chair, watched movies and drank half a bottle of Riesling before getting an early night in preparation for Graeme moving in bright and early the next day.
That was the plan, at least. Delays at his end meant their purported 0930 arrival was more like 1045, annoying his mum who wanted to watch the F1GP Qualifying at 11. We got the last of his stuff in in record time, letting his mum go while we organised the rest of his stuff. By 3 he was pretty much done bar the books, for which we need massive quantities of bookshelfage, most probably in the lounge- Gods, we're going to look sophisticated, especially once I put the Da Vinci print back up too...
A somewhat-happier-than-Friday Vicki turned up at about 3pm and we mounted an expedition into town to raid Tylers, Argos and Sainsburys for stuff we would all need. We ended up using up the last of the steak bought for last Tuesday in creating a teriyaki-gyudon-type meal, which was pretty damned tasty. :)
Graeme headed into Leicester a little after that for Charlie and Richy's birthday bash at Retribution (he was planning on meeting Giles there), to which Vicki and I decided we couldn't be hedgehogged to go to. Instead, we decided to drink saké and watch movies. Rather than movies, we settled on watching the anime series Chobits (which Graeme has a bootleg DVD set of) end-to-end. We probably should have thought that through slightly better- it's a twenty-six episode series, giving a running length of about eleven hours.
Graeme and Ed returned around 3am and hung about for cerca half an hour before crashing out- apparently they'd had a good night, Graeme proving in his choice of songs to dance to that he is indeed the Goth he has been labelled. ;)
We finished our anime marathon around quarter to six, though I think it's fair to say that as the end approached neither Vicki nor I was capable of paying much attention to the TV. Once it was donedone I escorted her and her shopping home (the bits I could remember- found her quiches and cheese in the fridge this morning) before returning to crash out. As one can guess, Sunday was rather subdued. ;) Graeme headed out to Beefest at the Three Nuns, while I alternated watching anime and reading webcomics and Ed watched Return Of The King and its extras followed by The Last Samurai (I don't get that- he knows he hates the film, yet he still puts it on through choice?). Managed to do the washing up as my good deed for the day, though that was before Ed cooked... ;)
And thus we're now in Monday. Pub tonight, eight days left in the office and four days until the NIN gig. I'm in something of a good mood, really. :D
Countdown: 68 days until next NL holiday. :D
posted by Union Jackal at 10:31 am
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