Yet more stuff
Mood:  mischievious
Now Playing: Primus - sailing the seas of Cheese
Topic: Stephen Says
1 year ago today, E got her new glasses.
1 year and 1 day ago, I linked to Get Your war On. If you're not reading it regularly, why don't you just click on the link and get yo'self re-aquainted with it.

Just Stuff
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: Pigment Vehicule - Murder's Only Foreplay When You're Hot For Revenge (Stephen's is here)
Topic: Stephen Says
I swear to God, I'm not blogging just so that I can type in what should be considered one one the best names for a rock album ever. The wonderful thing is that they followed it up with their next album called 'Independent Women Are So Damn Good.'

There's another album out there called 'Perfect Cop Moustache' but I haven't listened to that one.

This week I'll have logged 50+ hours plus 2 sleep-ins so I'm a tad tired but, as they say in England, 'woteva, minga'.

I'm also into a new British TV show called the Green Wing.
I also had a nose bleed on the way home.
I also have to work for tomorrow.

But at least I've gotten into this mental stte of mind where I just accept that I'll be working all the time and so it's not bad at all. In fact, it's quite pleasant.
It's just a shame that it leaves me nothing that I can blog about.

Ok, I WAS going to end there and not mention E's insane obsession about not upstaging each others blog entries BUT since's she's just griped at me about it, here I am upstaging her blog entry:

Back-flip, summersault, cartwheel, double-inverse summersault, back-flip, front-flip, double-back-flip, treble-front-double-back-summer-flip-sault-with-a-double-axel-cartwheel.

And a perfect landing.
sucka.

The First Saturday of Spring
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Manhattan Transfer (because Stephen's not here)
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

What a funny day so far, but only because this is Woking, and one just can never seem to get used that fact.

Stephen first of all was doing a sleep-in at work, so I spent Fri. night getting my hair cut, and shopping for groceries. If you check back a few posts, you'll know that I'm currently reading a book about what we don't know about our food. Now that I'm starting to know just a few things, it's literally paralyzing me (much to the annoyance of the other shoppers of course) whenever I'm in a grocery store now.

Last night I was going to have a girly night & buy a ready-made meal, drink chardonnay etc...but no dice ma'am. I ended up having fried zucchini over fettuchini, which was delicious and filling. Of course I still had the wine.

I slept in an extra 45 min. and started my quest on how to source the most ethically produced food within the confines of Woking. So I made a list, decided to make two trips into town, and set off for the "farmers market" in town. I used those quotation marks because I'm sure upon further investigation over half their produce is from other countries. So why are they there? Again, as I was fingering the celery from Spain at the market, I was paralyzed, and yes, getting in people's way.

But I looked at the people jostling to get their produce from the markets, and concluded the following:

-Although the produce is probably not British, it looks like better quality produce than that which you find in the supermarkets, as well, it's cheaper. Plus, your money is not going to the supermarket chains, which are responsible for so many ills to society, individuals and the planet.

Since there was still room in my backpack, I legged it to Holland and Barrett, the national health food chain. I tried to find ethical alternatives to what I would usually have bought from Sainsburys. I was hoping to find plain flour (perhaps organically produced even), but only found potato and rice flour. At the end of it, I came away with English honey (if the label is truthful, that means we've saved thousands of transport miles as our last brand of honey was from Austrialia), and English strawberry spread with all natural ingredients.

With still more room available, I decided to check out Heater's bakery to see how good their baguettes were. First I stopped at Blockbusters and rented The Kid (Charlie Chaplin), Dr. Zhivago (never seen it...), and Baise-Moi (if you don't know, you don't want to know probably). Then into Heater's bakery where everything looked terrible! It didn't even smell of bread! No baguettes of course, so I ended up getting this because the man behind the counter kept asking me what I wanted:

Finally, with spring having arrived, I was hell bent on buying flowers. But I wanted to see how ethically I could do it. I was all prepared to talk to the Interflora florists, but with tomorrow being Mother's Day (in the UK only-don't panic!) it was packed with fathers pushing baby strollers, so I went back to market & decided to let my nose decide which flowers were best. For a flower stall, it was surprisingly unfragrent. So I chose the nicest smelling thing: carnations & of course I had to have some daffodils as well:

Oddly, as I was heading back past the trainstation, more and more squad cars and vans packed with neon-yellow jacketed policemen were pulling up to the station. What now? Bomb threats? As I walked through the stinking tunnel under the train tracks, I though, how horrible would it be if a bomb went up and I was trapped, or killed in this stinking tunnel.

With flowers in one hand, my other on the bicycle handle-bar and hovering over the brake, I wound my way back to the apartment, sound as a pound.

As I made a raspberry/banada smoothie & checked my shopping list, I saw a helicopter hovering over the town center. What's going on?! Is it just rowdy FC Woking fans?

Heading back into town for the second time, I first went to the butchers, where I found my most ethical purchase: free-range eggs, laid yesterday, and from a farm actually in Surrey. The two men in Vincent's butcher were extremely friendly and I will hopefully now continue to buy our eggs there.

Then to Sainsbury's where I had to stop shopping because I couldn't hold the weight of the basket anymore. I jumped on my bike again and finally home (again.)

The fruits of my labours:

And even though the potted basil plant is more than I need for my recipe, and a bit more expensive than the washed & trimmed basil, I now realize that many illegal immigrants working under gangmasters problably have prepared that basil, so I tried to get the least-labour intensive product. And look how beautiful:

Stephen's getting off work in 2 min. and I haven't cleaning anything! But I did get him cider so should be ok. But I should go and manically tidy up...

And if you think you're feeling jealous that spring's hit us already, here's a window into what spring looks like in Woking:

Bonus Thursday Night blogging
Topic: Stephen Says
An amusing & interesting article. So why not click it and see if you agree.

By the way, we're over 400 entries over here; slowly working our way to 500. Only 97 to go.

Tired
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: Some mix tape
Topic: Stephen Says
So very, very tired.
Nothing to say - I work & I eat & I sleep.
But spring is here. You can smell it in the air. And unlike Montreal, springtime in Woking doesn't smell like melting dog poop.

The prodigal returns?
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: piano lessons upstairs
Topic: Stephen Says
Jeeze, it’s been a while. I don’t know, I think I’ve been needing a blogging respite. It’s started to feel like work updating things. Anyway, what’s been going on with me?

Mom’s visit was very nice and relaxing. It was also (deserved) time off for myself as I was starting to burn out/ reach the limits of my tether. I suppose the rambling & repetitive rants that preceded my disappearance from Stephen & Elisabeth Land were enough of a signifier of my mental state. Anyhow, all is good now & I’m all chilled out and ready to resume stressing myself out.

The recipe du jour is baked gnocchi. I got this recipe via a colleague via her boyfriend: fry up a red onion, add chopped tomatoes & lots of oregano. Boil & simmer. Add to a casserole dish with fresh gnocchi (Not yet cooked) and mix together. Top with fresh mozzarella and bake until it starts to go golden on top. Just delish! I tweaked it a bit but that was the basic recipe and there are enough Italians reading this that I’m sure you’ve all got fantastic ideas on how to make this sucker taste even better.

We saw V for Vendetta on the weekend – a relatively faithful adaptation of the comic. Think of the movie version to American Psycho – sure it wasn’t verbatim but the spirit of the thing was there. Of course, the comic was better.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: Nick Cave
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Fighting the urge to drink the whole bottle of wine and snack on chunks of cheese.

A typical afternoon.

Stephen's cooking "Baked Fettucini al Funghi" and I'm salivating at the smells.

We've had a very relaxing weekend of buying & reading books one of which is scaring me off of eating food completely. It'a called "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence. She's been a food correspondent for the Guardian for over 20 years.

To sum up so far:

1. Chicken in the UK is often imported from Holland (who has imported these chickens from Brazil & Thailand). Then they plump up the chicken with water & hydrolyzed proteins. The later are "proteins extracted at high temperatures or by chemical hydrolysis from old animals or parts of animals which are no use for food, such as skin, hide, bone, ligaments and feathers. Rather like cosmetic collagen implants, they make the flesh swell up and retain liquid." This often means that the meat is only 54% of the meat it says it is, and that even Halal chicken can contain pork and beef. Yikes. I'm definitely a card-carrying vegetarian now, no exceptions. Why? Because this chicken from Holland is imported into the UK, where it is processed & then packaged as being UK produce (only because it was packed in the UK. This is consistent with current UK law. So the consumer believes they are buying UK poultry, supporting local farmers. Sorry ol' chap.) The chicken is then sold to all major supermarkets (who are responsible for this system in order to beat competition), catering companies, which provide food to fast food outlets, restaurants, pubs, clubs, schools, hospitals, etc...This does not only apply to chicken; it can be beef, ham, even fish. And this is the tip of the iceberg...it's only chapter 1.

Otherwise, we're just lazy, and enjoying it. We had our first relatively warm & sunny day today, which gives me hope that tomorrow will really bring Spring...please, oh, please!

Finally bought the Driving Theory test manual & highway code & I'm looking into private driving lessons tomorrow.

I've also been reading about the amazing amount of potentially health hazardous chemicals we daily absorb through our skin from lotions, potions, shampoos, make-up etc... this combined with The Body Shop being taken over by L'Oreal (Rodick you are a sell-out and a disappointment!) I will no longer be shopping at my ex-favourite supplier of body butter.

There are alternatives, it only requires a bit of extra work. But it'll be baby steps or burn out.

The week in pictures
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: BBC4
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Ok so to sum up, we have had a lovely week with Stephen's mother... as mentioned in the last blog, we went to London on Saturday:

WALKING TOWARDS CAMDEN MARKET

We had fun trowlling through the stalls but eventually left it all behind for the Tate Modern. Here is the view from the Millenium Bridge

Once in the Tate, we explored Rachel Whiteread's exhibition of white boxes.

Stephen found he had magical powers:

Finally, the weary group rests on a bench:

On Monday Stephen & Susan went down to Dorest to visit with Stephen's Nain (grandmother) and braved the chilly weather to stroll on the beach. Unfortunately no pictures were taken.

That brings us to Tuesday, Susan's 60th birthday. The day started with a shower...

...of balloons!

Then there was cava & prezzies:

After a relaxing day, we found ourselves in Weatherspoons for a drink before dinner, which of course was at L'Aroma...the most fabulous Italain restaurant in Surrey (sorry Don Beni's).

And now we recover. I'm trying to shake off a cold, and Stephen's back at work. Apartment hunting tops our list of things to do this Saturday. Plus sleep of course.

How are all of you?

Sunday Already?
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: David Francy
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

It's Sunday already & we're taking the day to CHILL-OUT! Since Susan (Stephen's mother) arrived on Wednesday, it has been one action-packed non-stop adventure.

Wednesday: Susan arrives in the morning-and recovers from jet lag. Stephen had the day off, and after work, I met them at the pub for drinks before a curry at Thali Thali.

Thursday Stephen & Susan went to Guildford, while I was back at work. It was typical English weather--damp, overcast, periodic drizzle with gale force winds. Despite this they had a very good time seeing the Alice & Wonderland garden, the castle, & shops. We just chilled out in the evening & watched Christopher Guest's "Best in Show".

Friday: Elisabeth back at work while Susan & Stephen "do woking" In the evening Stephen made a Morrocan-style couscous & vegetable dish, before we headed out to the Woking theatre to see Festen, which is on its way to Broadway. The play was enjoyed by all & discussed afterwards in the pub.

Saturday was London Day. Our first stop was Camden market where we enjoyed some market-stall shopping & eating. Then we headed over to the Tate Modern. We got home, ate guacamole & watched "A Mighty Wind." Pictures to come.

Off to Woking...

Gray Sky
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: BBC4
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

I should be jogging right now as it's just past 7am, but I've a good excuse today: Stephen's mother is arriving in about an hour! And while Stephen is in the shower, someone has to man the phones.

Also I've been feeling under the weather, so probably best not to push myself too much eh?

Last night I gave my very first piano lesson. It was a lot of fun. I now have to figure out how to explain chords for the next lesson. Any tips? (look in a book...)

It's now time for me to get ready for work while Stephen makes a smoothie & takes care of the last bits of tidying up.

More blogging to come, stay tuned!