Diet.....groan

What we had
Burgers
500g 5% fat minced beef
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 large egg
1 slice white bread made into crumbs (crusts and all)
4 rashers smoked bacon minced finely

Squelch it altogether, divide into 6 burgers and bake in oven for 15 mins (180)
Dryer than most burgers because low fat.
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Coleslaw:
200g White Cabbage- chopped very small in food processor
300g Carrots grated
200g light Mayo
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Holiday

Well hello!

The Lord Love Interest, myself and my marvellous mum are off on holiday today, for four days! I cannot tell you how excited I am and I thought I will use the blog to record all the gruesome details of our break, on a boat, with limited space in the Norfolk Broads. However, whether or not this will always be possible I don't know as although the boat has WI-Fi- it's not everywhere.

This will be Mum's first holiday in years and she has never done this kind of thing before so I am hoping that it will go beyond her expectations.

I have already managed Mum's expectations by reminding her we are not on the QE2 nor are we on a cruise liner, the Captain's table is very small, with limited company and indeed the Captain is the LLI (I think I need to manage his Captainish too- he will wash up at least once).

So until next time- wish us luck and here's a pic of the previous time LLI and I went away to the Broads.


Love
(Very excited) J C Ritzen

This is it!

Well 2015 has just a few hours left and 2016 is about to begin.

To be honest, I can't get excited about New Year (especially this one as I am so poorly today), to me it's just same rubbish, different day. As you can see this is my 'Bah Humbug' time of the year whereas at Christmas I am a model of joy and merriment (sort of).

This is also the last of my daily blogs and from now on, if I write a blog, it will be when I have actually got something to say not because I challenged myself to do a daily blog but I'm jolly glad I have done because I have looked back on the blogs and it's amazing what I have forgotten.

Lots have happened this year for example Son Number one came back from Australia, we started dance classes (that is an adventure in itself) I have found growing tomatoes very stressful and emotionally challenging, I tried and failed at the allotment, we went to Cornwall twice this year with some wonderful friends, went to a wedding, a wedding renewal ceremony (which was beautiful, had a free spirit holiday in Scotland but not before a practice run in Wales. What else? Oh Son number two was rushed to hospital, we found his Lordships plot of land (never to return- I'm still not over the trauma), I left a job and started a new one as a teacher, we went to a concert with Mum and SN1 who were disgracefully behaved but hilarious, oh and Strawberries, I grew strawberries! And herbs! I repuffed my sofa (I am very proud of that achievement), got my entire dining room for free (good ol' Freecycle), had a massive Christmas lunch, made lots of cakes, I turned 50 and I have consumed copious glasses of red wine throughout the year.

I have asked LLI to grab me a glass so I can take a picture to wish you cheers but he hasn't moved so I will go an get it myself.

Which I have now done.

I would very much like to thank my incredibly loyal  and encouraging friends who have indulged my fantasy of being a writer by reading this blog. I mean! Some of the guff I wrote! Your patience and stamina has been remarkable and I am very grateful.

So thank you, I am genuinely touched and I raise a glass to you and wish you a very Happy New Year


Cheers me dears- this is to you

Love

J C Ritzen

A few Pictures- sorry but so poorly at the minute

Back to Work

Well Christmas is a bit yesteryear!

Full of cold and on less than 3 hours of broken sleep, I went into work although by the afternoon I was seriously nodding off at my desk which was a bit surprising.
No students so no classes but that doesn't mean we teachers stop- on no. Contrary to popular belief, whilst we do have a generous holidays, they are not as generous as the students.

My day was spent doing schemes of work which is so much easier to do now I have a timeline whereby I now know when the assignments need to be done.

That said, the majority of the schemes of work are not entirely complete but I have managed to get ahead of the game.  LLI and myself have agreed that we will do work over the weekend but not without conditions i.e. we are will give ourselves a time.
On top of the Schemes of Work, I have to do lesson plans and on top of THAT, I have yet to do my ultra tricky class who refuse to anything I ask them to do.
That is what tomorrow is for. I need enough to keep them occupied whilst trying to convince them that what they 100% do not want to do is indeed a very good idea.

I  can but hope, but in the meantime as my ex next door neighbour would say, a glass of wine would go down very well.

Love

J C Ritzen

Mum is Home

Mum is now safely home but not before we went to Tesco and she cleared the shelves to take back with her. She has my sister, her partner, nephew his partner and my great nephew coming down to hers for New Year and has this overwhelming need to feed them. And people say I'm bad!

For the second morning in a row, I woke up with a dreadful sore throat. When I wake up it feels like I'm swallowing razor blades which gradually eases off after about an hour. That alongside a snuffly nose can only mean I have another flipping cold! I've only just had one and that was when I started my job at the college. I really can't cope with another right now I really can't. I've also been feeling sick as well but that seems to be have subsided a bit, particularly after I has lunch with Mum and LLI that I didn't have to prepare and cook myself.

Back home with the wonderful man thinking- I really ought to make him something for supper as he has been super patient and a superstar with all the tooing and froing to Mum's he has done.

Not much else to report to be honest so I shall love you and leave you and I guess I should make himself some supper or he'll think I don't love him anymore.

Love

J C Ritzen

A Day of Nothingness

I actually woke up at 8.00 this morning which was nice but having slept on the inflatable which is not the most comfortable but marginally more comfortable than sharing it with the Lord Love Interest (he slept in the single bed) who when he rolls over bounces me off and vice versa, I woke up several times and was very stiff. It's not funny having to get UP from bed rather than rolling OUT of it. It's a long way up after a sleep in the inflatable and you're as stiff as a board- I creaked a lot and it always starts off with me on all fours on the floor, then crawling (I kid you not) up the wall!

Today has been quiet. It's lovely having LLI about along with Mum. However, the day is long when you have to fill it with nothingness but somehow I managed quite a bit of nothingness which took a bit of getting used to but was very nice when I did.

I am very happy to announce, my kitchen is almost back to normal. I am delighted! More so because I can now fill the kettle from the cold tap without having to move contents of the sink. Unfortunately I haven't had hot water this past week and my landlord has still to get back to me to let me know when it can be fixed. This has meant the dishwasher has been on the go constantly for the past three days- it has served me well.

Now, I am going to cook supper. Chicken in white wine and cream cheese with linguine. An old favourite.

Have a lovely nothingness of an evening.

Love

J C Ritzen

Boxing Day and It's Over

My sister, her partner, Nephew, his partner,  gorgeous Great Nephew and his doggy all came over for lunch today. These are the occasions I enjoy most with the whole family and the Lord Love Interest was there too. I missed him yesterday.

We exchanged presents and I did a buffet of cold meats, coronation chicken, jacket potatoes and other bits and bobs.

First though, Mum and I went to Tesco's and pottered around. However, our pottering resulted in way too many bags of shopping for even me to carry so we pushed the trolley as far as we could across the car park, left Mum there with the trolley as I took four of the bags to the corridor of the flat, ran back to Mum and she carried the chicken fillets whilst I took the two heavier bags.
I then had to find room in my already packed fridge to put Mum's things in which meant getting the cold bag out,  putting my stuff in that,  giving Mum a whole shelf for hers and wondering why oh why did she need yogurts when she is not going home till Monday.

The boys are a bit better today although SN2 didn't get to sleep until four this morning due to the pain in his mouth but felt a bit better after catching up. On the other hand SN1 had the best night sleep for five nights. This meant that both were in a much better mood and frame of mind.

I was a tad stressed this morning due to taking too long in Tesco's, kitchen a mess, sons noticing the kitchen in an mess and commenting. In fact the whole of Christmas which, despite what SN1 says (he says I can't do Christmas), has surprised me regarding stress factor as I am normally super organised.
My vision of all hands on deck, Doris Day perfect  family Christmas failed spectacularly and ended in hospital trips, ill sons, me practically doing everything (apart from one unloading of dishwasher, iroining the tablecloth  that SN2 did yesterday and searing the beef which SN1 did & he did check it from time to time but everything else....) and it made me realise, that I am very much a singleton with no one to work in a team with for that Doris Day smiley Christmas.
I can do Christmas.....just not on my own and especially with the underlying worry of sons being sick, Mum being quiet and the kitchen being in a permanent disarray (the kitchen thing was and still is the biggest stress factor).

Luckily, I had more help today but there was no trifle and still no bloody cheesecake that I was meant to make yesterday.

This year, my Christmas presents that I spent a tad more than I normally do as I clearly had no idea what I was thinking of, have been met with cynicism, a luke warm reception and indifference. I had put a lot of thought in those but as I said I was thinking on another planet.

I bought handbags that came from flipping Hong Hong,  arrived the wrong colour resulting in emails telling me that they were never pink, it was my screen that was making them pink.
The whole present thing has upset me and they could have cost a quid or a hundred quid, I would have felt the same.

Still never mind, as the LLI said, it is done and I will know for next year.

Now I know it sounds like it has been a miserable Christmas but it hasn't, it's just for a roast dinner, it has been hard work.
I have loved having Mum over, I loved the boys being here (although I am not sure they did) and I loved the family do today. And it was only this morning when I felt the pressure really and that was the kitchen.

No it has been a lovely Christmas. Just a little harder than this singleton thought it would be.

Love

J C Ritzen

And so We Went to Hospital

Merry Christmas one and all. I hope you have had a good day with plenty of fun, food and celebration.

This morning started off in Best Western Hospital, Swindon with both boys- I delivered them as a job lot.

SN1 has torn a muscle in his upper arm which has detached itself from the bone, in a lot of pain, not sleeping and so therefore grumpy. He apparently did something to it in a gym when he was in Australia, it hurt a lot but eventually got better.
He was cycling back from work last  Monday and the gears slipped by itself, jolted him but the pain is way more intense than it was before. He has been told to make an appointment with his GP, get referral to  a physiotherapist and has been given exercises to do in the meantime.
However, as he said, it's good to know what it is but it still doesn't make the pain go away.

SN2 came in yesterday with a swollen face! This time it is on the opposite side of the face and of course he was in pain. It appears a lot more localised then the last time, but he only had the operation 6 weeks ago so there was a certain amount of anxiety out there. He was referred to the GP section to the hospital and was finally seen where he was packed with a packet of antibiotics and a merry Christmas.

The irony is that the very reason why I wanted Christmas at home is so I didn't have the cross country driving as with all the other Christmas's  but with going to Bristol yesterday and Swindon today it kinda not wholly worked out that way but hey ho

The rest of the day was spent cooking and washing up. I can't believe how much crockery  four people use....I'm nowhere near cleared up and I have got Boxing day to do.

We had the ham hock terrine for starters and the main was the eye wateringly expensive rib of beef which SN1 did which was spectacular! This was served with Yorkshire puddings, winter coleslaw (carrots and leeks- should have celeriac as well but I didn't bother), roast potatoes, brussels. We had no room for pudding.

I don't know why but I have found this Christmas difficult in terms of getting the cooking done, table laid, tidying and making sure everyone has plenty of drink and so on. I hope everyone had a good time.

Mum and I are now watching Christmas Strictly Come Dancing whilst the boys are out having one beer (which seems to be taking them ages to drink).

Time to open another bottle of wine I think.

Merry Christmas.

Love

J C Ritzen

My House!

My house! My house!!! Well...my flat but....my flat!!!! It is wrecked, I spent hours cleaning it last Sunday and now it's wrecked with wine glasses, pots, pans, plates...oh joys.

Trouble is, I have had a bit to drink and I am knackered so thinking leave it till tomorrow? But then I'm thinking, I have Christmas lunch to do, both the boys (SN1 I picked up from Bristol today) are either ill/ injured (sadly they are genuinely that/ that)  so they are not going to be as helpful as I hoped.

You will be happy to know that I have triumphed with the ham hock terrine. I asked Mum to road test it and she was very enthusiastic.

Tonight, we had chicken curry (cooked today), onion bhaji's , pilau rice (cooked when I came home from Bristol), naan. Dinner time with Mum, the Lord Love Interest and the boys was exactly how I wanted it. All in the middle and help yourself, each to their own (although their was more than enough for it to be more refined than that) and enjoy. It was a fantastic success.

But my house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry......flat!

Love

J C Ritzen

Crazy Bear, Crazy Idea- though quietly in Smugville

Inspired by the Crazy Bear, despite the fact I hate ham, I decided for Christmas I would do a ham hock terrine starter.

I found the recipe and this afternoon, having soaked the 3 hocks overnight and a teaspoon of coriander seeds, peppercorns, onion, carrot and celery and two and half hours later, it was time to shred it, add parley and gherkins. This was followed by draining the liquor which is boiling to reduce to make a jelly. It is now eight o'clock, I started at one forty five.

A simple starter has become an epic saga and not helped by dropping a bottle of rose wine on my toe which is currently killing me.

However...I think it might be an ok start to the Christmas season and I am feeling a bit smug....I hope it will be a bit of a showstopper.

Fingers crossed.

Love

J C Ritzen

Pst- Don't tell Mum

So Day three of Mum being with me and I am loving it by the way but I have got myself a nice little routine to make sure that Mum has everything she needs whilst I am at work in the morning.

This entails, slicing two slices of bread, putting them in the toaster ready for her to pop in, laying the table with jam, butter, plate knife and plate, buying a Daily Telegraph which is placed on the left hand side of the plate (or is it the right), making a cheese sandwich (or roll), laying out a plate of biscuits and finally I make a cup of coffee for her which I take into her bedroom and then off I go.

This morning. I did all this and I managed to make me a flask of coffee to take to work with me as I am fed up of paying £1.45 for coffee which over the week/ month results in a lot of money so, for me, this was/ is a cost saving exercise only, I forgot to take it with me.

So I ended up spending another £1.45 at work and the morning went quickly. I left working still reeling that I forgot the flask but never mind, it will be there when I get home I can just pour one out and no kettle to wait to come to the boil.

I got home after I picked up some hearing aid batteries and Mum was sitting happily in the lounge. I asked if she was alright and she said she was, she enjoyed her breakfast, biscuits and thank you so much for the flask of coffee, that was a lovely surprise, thank you again. She polished the lot off!

Of course, that's perfectly alright, but I haven't 'fessed' that I accidentally did good.

It's quite nice to be (generally speaking that is, not just in this case) in the good books for once. Feels good

Love

J C Ritzen

Sister and a Brand New Italian Restaurant in Hungerford

Woke up this morning in a single bed....I didn't half ache! I got breakfast ready for Mum and I was off out off to work.

I worked the morning, then Mum and I went to my sisters where my Great Nephew was there too with my niece in law as well. As always he was a cutie even if I wasn't in his favour. No popcorn and no kiss so I was well out of the Cool Auntie Club.

On the way home we dropped by the FINALLY opened Bella Vita Italian Restaurant! It's been 'Opening Soon' for over a year and I think I may have been a bit obsessed with it (probably due to yearning for a decent restaurant in Hungerford) as when I asked how long had it been open for, the waiter said one week! I must have REALLY kept an eye on it then.

So I swung into the car park, told Mum I would check to see if they have a table available, I walked through the door and I was overwhelmed with the welcome of three Italians running towards me speaking Italian....I did think I had a very attractive young lady behind me but no, it was me they were greeting. Anyway- they had a table for two and I went back to the car to get 'Mama'. I was then ordered to relaxa.

Apparently it is a family run restaurant. They already have one in Thatcham and Princes Risborough but this one in Hungerford is the very last one and that's it.


We had a smashing meal with bread and humongous olives placed on the table. The menu is varied with starters, pasta, mains, pizza so you can make it as a casual or special occasion affair  as you want.

The service was very schmoozy and tactile and they treated Mum like the Queen which was lucky as she paid for the meal. It was all rather lovely actually.

The picture below was the Chicken with asparagus, white wine and cream sauce (my only criticism was that I could have done with the white wine coming through a lot more- it tasted largely of cream) . I know it looks like sick on a plate but it was delicious and seeing that asparagus is out of season, it was the tastiest asparagus I have had for a long time.



Now, home with the obligatory glass of wine in hand (Mum's idea).

Love

J C Ritzen

Our First Ball

The ball last night was wonderful! We danced the Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot , Cha cha cha and goodness knows what else. The Gay Gordon which we have only done once was fab-u-lous darling but really is best danced before a couple of glasses of wine- it made me very dizzy)

My feet were killing me by the end of the evening but it was really well organised with an hour of dancing to a live band, an hour interval with buffet and dancing to music, then the live band came back on for a final hour.It really was lovely. It was nice to put all our hours of dance class into something real.

There is an etiquette to dancing in that everyone dances anti clockwise and we must look out for other dancers. It is polite and the right thing to do...unless you are a poncy couple who think they are at a competition dance, then the rest of the anti-clockwise dancers are knocked aside like skittles They couldn't give a flying foxtrot about anyone else and were so out of place against all the other couples who were of varying levels of toe treading and shin kicking. The said couple looked ridiculously smug and self gratifying.

Anyway, apart from that, we had a super time.

Below which is the wrong way round was our dance schedule- there was a lot!



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STOP PRESS: The Lord Love Interest saw the moon was out, pulled out the telescope and we saw the moon and the craters. Mum is here and she saw it too. It was very exciting but I know I am being a bit thick here, but I had no idea the moon moved so quickly!

Anyway, See you tomorrow

Love

J C Ritzen

Out on a Date

Am blogging in the car as The Lord Love Interest and I are on our way to a Christmas ball organised by the dance school we go to. 

This I am very excited about as it means we will be doing proper dancing. By proper I mean our own version of what the dance should be but that comes with the guarantee of not treading on each other's feet. Well that's the plan anyway . 

However, as always on these occasions, we have to drop in to LLI's place as he forgot his shoes. Last time we went out he picked up the wrong suit so he had to change at his on the way.

Ah well, he is easily forgiven due to looking rather sexy in his dicky bow.

Love 

J C Ritzen 

Christmas Gift Grumbles

I think I am going to have to do the unthinkable and do Christmas shopping the traditional way and I am filled with dread with even the thought of the traditional method which as I have all the gifts now,  won't be until next Christmas.

I armchaired it this year as I am not keen on being shoved, dug in the ribs (which are tricky to find at the best of times) and queuing but am only happy with half the purchases.

One purchase was for two people (one each) which I ordered 29th November, that was dispatched from Hong Kong, then arrived in Germany, then went to the West Midlands before arriving Wednesday just gone- but the wrong colour!

I wrote to the customer service, but had no reply, I then tried the chat line but was hung on in relative silence for half an hour before being told that someone will come back to me in half an hour but within an hour of useless 'Chat; with 'Sharon', this came to me.

Dear customer,

Thank you for your email.

As for this if you really not like them you can ship it back and we will give you a full refund or help you exchange it for free.But you may need to pay for the returning shipping fee.Please notice this.

Regards

Blue

Well 'Blue', I am actually seeing red! Why should I pay shipping for you to rectify your mistake and why are you not paying for your mistake?

Honestly, I am fuming!

Anyway, I sent them an email to say I was unhappy and actually I think they are rude. I also pointed out that they would not be able to turn around the replacements in time for Christmas.

The quality of the products (I will tell you after Christmas what they are just in case one of the girls might read this), is very good but the wrong bloody colour! They're cream, not pink!

The worst thing is, that the reviews for this and the company in general are ALL 4 or 5 stars so if I was to give them a bad review, no one is going to believe me (can they take bad one's off?).

The LLI's present came in but that's not good either. I was expecting the engraving to be bigger but it's a bit lost.

So....I'm going to go traditional next year.

Will save me a fortune in post and packaging at least

Love

J C Ritzen

My First Teacher Training Day

Teacher training day today and I was strangely excited about it. My colleagues laughed a lot at me.

All my life, when I was at school, when the boys were at school, I have always wondered what goes on during teacher training day (which used to be called, Occasional Day, Baker Day, Inset Day and finally Teacher Training Day) and do you know what happens on teacher's training day?
Well hold onto your hat.....teacher training!!!! And by golly it was a long day! Useful though.

As it is Christmas, we were being treated to a Christmas lunch but the queue was so long, I abandoned that idea but not because I was stroppy, but because I knew some of us were going for an early meal at the Twin Watermills based a metre from the campus, I wasn't unduly worried.

I really like my colleagues and it was so nice to spend some down time with them.

Anyway, I am back home, TV is rubbish,  so catching up with rubbish TV that I have recorded.

Well at least I it is selected rubbish.

Love

J C Ritzen

Scrap Supper

I am feeling virtuous. Tonight we had scrap dinner which were leftovers from the Sunday roast.

Last Sunday we had Roast beef with veg (I kept it simple as knackered) simply because we picked up a large joint for a fiver and had to be used. There was a hidden agenda in that I am cooking the worlds most expensive rib of beef on Christmas day ( & it is eye wateringly expensive) and I am not very good at beef so the roast last Sunday was a practice run (albeit a topside)

Well I followed the bloody instructions for medium rare beef to the letter and it was STILL as hard as old boots so I'm thankful that I have assigned SN1 to do the rib on Christmas day although I am steering him clear of the braising idea.

The beef was so tough that I nearly broke my food processor when I put it in batches to be finely chopped. The machine danced across the work surface and the meat stayed whole!

Anyway, finally in smaller batches I got it done and it was braised in leftover gravy and leftover vegetables.

It was all very nice but the bigger chunks were still chewy and LLI had to have a toothpick.

Maybe for Christmas I should have stuck to chicken.

Love

J C Ritzen

Is it me?

I had a delivery today, or rather I would have but no one was home and so was left with a card to say they will try again tomorrow. However, I won't be here so DHL have helpfully put a tracking number on the card and a website address. Unhelpfully, the writing is illegible and when I key in the said tracking number, the company doesn't recognise it!

Is it too much to ask for things to be simple? In theory it is, in practice it is frustratingly a different story. I wasted twenty long minutes on trying to decode my tracking number.

Anyway, I will leave a note to say leave it somewhere in the hope that the delivery person can read better than they can write.

I know it's only a little thing but I want my delivery.

Love

J C Ritzen

Time to Get Tactical

Back to work today, another day, another dollar and all that and I have two biscuit doughs in the kitchen ready to be rolled and baked.

It was year 2 last cookery lesson this afternoon and they wanted to make gingerbread men (which were more Christmas trees and hearts but hey ho) but the other half wanted to make shortbread so I gave them a recipe for both, demonstrated both but because I needed them to crack on, get their biscuits of choice to be cooked cooled for decorating quickly, I didn't do the full rolling out and cutting bit, hence the dough in the kitchen.

To be fair, they did a good job and those who did decorate, really were imaginative.
They have been a tricky group but they seem to be coming round but then again, it could be this Christmas thing.

The trickiest group, were tricky tricky again today. Whenever I ask them to do something, they  sabotage it or not do it. They are so frustrating, throwing sweets around, rowing, generally being- well- frustrating.

Due to their uncooperative  behaviour, I abandoned the fun finale (we had a practice run at the beginning of the class but they cheated, went totally against what they were told etc etc) and i asked them to go on to the PC's and do their own thing for twenty minutes to which one of them asked, 'What kind of our own thing?'

'Well', I said. 'You know when I ask you to do something and you ignore me then do your own thing?'

'Yeah' was the reply

'Well that's the kind of your own thing you can do for the next twenty minutes'

Do you know what? Not one PC was turned on, not one person did their own thing that they always do. Instead, they stared at me for a whole minute and declared themselves bored and I should be teaching.

The irony is, had I asked them to do something following something I actually taught, they would have done their own thing and I would have struggled to get them to do what I want them to do but the MOMENT I tell them they can do their own thing, they don't want to.

This suggests to me, no matter what I do, what I say, they'll want to do the opposite just coz and Dad thought he had it hard with me!

However, by the time I see them next term, I will be fully recharged and raring to go, so watch out class- you will be taught, you will learn and you will do the tasks required because, I will use Dad's trick, ask them to do the opposite of what I require, make them think they are doing their own thing and I will get a result.

Happy days........sigh.

Love

J C Ritzen