Mike's musings

Eurostar

(backposting) Well, I'm very, very glad that we'd booked the Eurostar, rather than flying. Kate (my mother-in-law) and I are off to Brussels for the priesting of a Roman Catholic friend of ours. You should have seen the queues for tickets.

Now, some might say that a trip abroad with your mother-in-law was a recipe for disaster, but we get on pretty well most of the time, and I'd phoned the hotel this morning to ensure that we had (as I'd originally booked) got separate rooms. So, pretty safe. I met her at Liverpool Street station after work, and we headed round the Circle Line to King's Cross St Pancras. Nice glass of Chablis, and then onto Eurostar. A good journey, and we caught a taxi to the Radisson Blu, Brussels. A nice hotel, actually: I'd booked a couple of months ago, and got a rate of just €51 a night per room: excellent, for the quality. They recommended Le Volle Gas, and it was great. We had moules (we both love mussels!) and steack frite (steak and chips): both Belgium specialities. I heartily recommend the restaurant: but do check the price of the wine first...

To bed latish, but good to know that Moo has her dad with her to help look after the girls

Labels: family, food, travel

Staunton Harold, and big dogs

(backposting) We headed off to Staunton Harold to have a look around today, and had a nice time. I bought Kate a nice amber necklace and a silver one for Moo. There were also owls to be admired and we met a lovely St Bernard puppy as well. Afterward, we headed off to Calke Abbey for lunch, but by the time we got there, it was heaving, and there was no way we were going to get any food in decent time, so we headed off again and came across a lovely pub/inn: The Paddock, in Melbourne. Friendly welcome, good food, lovely people, decent prices, and a proper big dog: a Great Dane. The girls were fine with both of them: I'm glad that they've known big dogs. At some point we'll get another one, but it's not time yet.

In the afternoon, we headed off to see Moo's Nanna Jo, who's old, frail and rather confused. But happy, and well-looked after, which is very important.

In the evening, we drove back in the two cars, and got back before it got too late.

Labels: family, food

Haircut - and a lovely meal

(backposting) You don't want to know about my haircut, do you? Well, I had one, anyway, so there.

In the evening, Moo and I went out for a lovely meal at Scutchers. Wine-wise, we had a lovely Pouilly Fumé and a beautiful Fleurie (Domanie de Madone). I also had an interesting "black muscat": a red dessert wine - though it tasted like a standard white wine, with a little extra something. It was great to have some unbounded time with Moo, just to chat and enjoy each other's company, with some good food and wine. Usually we only have a little time over lunch or coffee, and we need to be back to look after the girls, but as my parents were looking after them, we had as much time as we needed.

Labels: food, Moo

Birthday and Chicken pie

Thanks to Rick Stein, Delia and Good Housekeeping, I came up with a chicken and asparagus pie this evening (yes, I used bought puff pastry). I was lovely, and we ate it all up between us. My parents are here for the weekend, so there were more people to share it with.

It's also Moo's 36th birthday today. I got her presents from the girls ("A Brief Encounter" and the Paolo Nutini album - which I'd confused with another artist), and I gave her a Wii game that we can play with the girls. Mel had made her a set of blueberry muffins instead of a cake, as per instructions, and my parents gave her a set of knitting books that she seems very happy with. I've been working very hard today, but we went out for lunch, and I hope she had a good birthday. I'm taking her out for a nice meal tomorrow night, as my parents will be baby-sitting. Where to go...?

Labels: birthday, food

Not swearing at the kids

That's always a good thing to spend the day doing. Well, we didn't just do that: I took the girls to church, we went out to lunch (great quote from Moo to the girls: "if you want chocolate, you need to eat some chicken. One chocolate for one piece of chicken."), came home, made cake, had Richard around for cake, ate cake, put the kids to bed. That's about it.

Labels: food

A seriously good day's work

(backposting) It all came together, I'm very pleased to say. We had a good supper to finish off the evening, but had one of those English moments where things really weren't perfect, but we clearly weren't going to complain. Oh, no.

Labels: food

Giraffe time

(backposting) Off to Giraffe in Cambridge with two very tired girls, after Jo's ballet in the morning. Moo had taken Kate and Mac to Cambridge for the Christmas shopping, and we met them for lunch. I took the girls to Waterstones to buy some nice books afterwards, and then we headed back home because they were just so knackered.

Labels: food, girls

Going out to lunch - properly

(backposting) It's been a while since we went there, but we had lunch with the girls at Scutchers in Long Melford. It wasn't cheap (not helped by the fact that we bought some of their award-winning smoked salmon for Christmas), but what food. The girls did pretty well, and, for a really good restaurant, it's brilliantly child-friendly. I don't think we've visited for maybe 2 or more years, but they were pleased to have us back, and it was a great call.

Went round to see some friends in the afternoon, and went for a walk. We'd promised the girls that we'd go out in the evening to a see a bonfire and fireworks, and we were both 90% certain that they'd completely freak, and we'd have to head home early as soon as the bangs started. But they did really well. We stood a way back, but had a good view, and they loved all the colours, and even quite liked the noise. So, a real win.

Got home, worked. Things are very, very busy, and I need to get some bits and pieces completed as soon as possible.

Labels: food, girls, walk, work

Sauna

(backposting) A good, challenging day at work, but very fulfilling. In the evening, I went to the gym for 20 minutes or so, and then headed up to the 9th floor for the pool, intending to do a few lengths. Got changed, slipped my toe in, jumped out. 17 degrees Celsius, which is _cold_. So, decided to try the sauna, instead. Men only, no clothes, but that's fine. And after 15 minutes or so of great sweating, I decided to try the pool again (with trunks on). This time, though very cold, it was really refreshing. Not sure I could jump in a frozen lake, as some Finns do, but I can certainly see the point now.

Off to a Lappish restaurant for supper. Lots of food, much of which was reindeer. Rather glad that we walked back to the restaurant, as we were all stuffed.

Labels: food, swimming

The house, the girls

It's really good how having children at school and pre-school starts integrating you better into the community. We need some insulation put in the roof (yes, I know I could technically do it, but I could also technically put my foot through several ceilings), so we got the dad of one of the other kids (who's a builder - the dad, not the kid) to come round and look at it. He was very helpful, pleasant, and seemed to know what he was talking about (there are some complicating factors, as we have a very old house). So we'll almost certainly get him to do the work. Oh, and it's so much nicer giving work to people in the local community. Good stuff.

After the excitement of peering into our loft spaces (we have 3 different ones - see above about old houses), we took the girls swimming for about an hour and a half. They had a great time, and we were all very hungry afterwards, so headed down to one of our favourite local cafe-restaurants. They took 20 minutes to even take our order. And it took another 15 minutes for the first of our drinks to arrive (and that was after hassling), with the others arriving some 10 minutes later. Luckily we'd ordered some garlic bread (which came around the same time as the second set of drinks), and the girls were very, very patient. We ended up getting stuffed, and came back to "garden". Well, sit in the garden watching the girls putting on "Shows". You know the type: "Falling down show", "Bouncing Show", "Skipping Show", "Beach Show" (they stripped down to underwear and pranced around to music with pom-poms as microphones), "Rain Show" (they added umbrellas) and "Snow Show" (they pretended to shiver). I've got some of it on video, and intend to save it for when they have their first serious boyfriends. Oh, yes.

Labels: food, girls

The Hobbit

(backposting) When I was young, I had a set of tapes of The Hobbit which I listened to again and again and again. I recently decided that Jo's probably just about old enough to enjoy it, in short snippets, so I ordered a copy, which arrived today, and have started reading it to her.

In unrelated news, from time to time my sweet tooth gets the better of me. When this happens, I tend to go to the shop next door, buy a tinned syrup sponge, heat it up, add milk and _extra_ golden syrup, and eat the entire thing. I know that this will make me feel ill, and guess what: it did. I'm not proud of myself.

Labels: books, food

At home, and downtrodden

(backposting) Downtrodden in two ways, really. The first was that work didn't go well today. Not that it went badly - it was just that all the things I was trying to do, at least in the afternoon, took rather longer than I'd expected, and were more difficult. Rather disappointing, given that I'd had rather a productive morning when I managed work out a rather knotty problem and find a rather nice solution.

The other was being accused, by my (lovely) wife, of "selective washing up". I think this was a suggestion that I'd not been bothering to do the more difficult or dirty pots and pans, but I was hurt by it, as I'm sure everyone will understand.

The day was improved by a) having a pub lunch with Moo and b) having lamb with baked beans for supper. There's something very special about the taste of lamb with baked beans, particularly warmed up roast lamb, and I think God must have known about baked beans when he made roast lamb so yummy. This caused some theological disagreement on my Facebook page, but I welcome controversy.

Labels: food, theology

Words - and computer that talks

(backposting) There really was a party today, and after taking the girls to the 1000, Jo got to go to it. It was a family service, and there was lots of standing at the front, singing and doing actions. Much fun, particularly for the girls, but I enjoyed it, too.

Miri and I had fun, listening to music, watching a DVD, cuddling, having lunch, while Moo and Jo went to the party. Afterwards, I introduced Jo to festival, an application for Linux/Unix that talks - well, which can be made to speak. Jo had said, a few days before, that of course computers can't talk, and I enjoyed getting it to say things to her. She's also played with lots of words and letters, and I got the my machine to say the words that she was reading. This was very amusing, apparently, and kept people amused for quite a while.

I cooked a lovely roast shoulder of lamb, which we had as a family supper. Well, I say _we_, but the girls had very little of the roast potato or carrot or gravy - or even lamb, in Miri's case. Oh well, we tried.

Labels: church, food, school

Oh, dear

(backposting) So, although Jo's ballet went well, there was something of a trauma afterwards. I was given the opportunity to take Jo to a party in the village at 1200. We headed off, with Jo in her Stephanie (Lazytown) outfit. And her silver shoes. Which don't fit her. They really don't. So she fell over and grazed her knee. Quite badly. So, a few tears. But she calmed down and we went into the Post Office. But as we came out, she realised that she was bleeding quite badly.

Melt-down.

And then we made it to the party venue. It was very quiet. And locked. So I called Moo, and Moo'd got the wrong day for the party.

More melt-down.

I carried Jo back, and we cleared up the blood. And then we took them to the cinema, just as something to do with them. We watched the vaguely diverting G-Force. I don't think we'll be watching it again, but it used up an hour or so, and was quite enjoyed. And then we went to a local Frankie & Benny's, which also helped.

The girls are really, really tired, poor little things.

Labels: films, food, party

Home alone

The girls are away at Kate and Mac's this weekend, so I'm home alone. We started off the day driving to Sainsbury's, planning a lovely fry-up. We got there at 0735 - the shop opening time being 0730 - but the café wasn't open yet, so we did some shopping. And _then_ we went to the caf&ecacute;. No fry-ups. And no clue about anything else either, it seems. But I bought a pair of trousers and a shirt for work. And some food for the weekend.

Got home, had a sleep, did all of the ironing whilst listening to the cricket. We've set them a good target, but, well, the pitch is holding up better than expected.

I've also updated my home laptop to karmic alpha 4, had an Indian take-away, and am watching Chain Reaction. Amusing and moderately diverting, but not High Art[tm].

Labels: cricket, films, food, geekery, girls

Go out for a walk...

... end up having a haircut. Really needed to get my haircut, noticed that the hairdresser was open, walked in. They were just closing up, but I offered them extra money, and so they agreed. I needed a haircut before we headed off on holiday three and a half weeks ago.

And then a Chinese take-away. Yum.

Labels: food

39 today!

Yes, it's my birthday today, and I'm 39 years old. I woke up too late to make it to the 8 o'clock service, and decided that spending time with family was more important that the canon law requirement to receive Communion every Sunday. So, we headed off for brunch (I'd had pirate cake for breakfast, and had a knickerbocker glory. We then headed off to Freeport where I bought more shirts and a pair of trousers for work. The girls started to lose it, and Miri slept all the way home, and for 20-30 minutes even after we got back.

And then, a birthday party. It turns ot that one of Jojo's pre-school friends, Amber, shares my birthday, so we went there for a children's party. I took the pirate cake (I'd just have ended up eating it all over the week), and everyone had a great time. However, towards the end, Miri put her elbow out again. It was pretty obvious, and _this_ time, I managed to put it back in, which was an enormous relief.

The girls just about managed to stay awake until bedtime, and then Moo and I did more Wii Fit work. It's really impressive, I have to say, and I'm really getting into it. I did some ironing as Moo did her work-out, and then barbecued some lovely steak with a lovely bottle of red wine from James and Ruth (thanks!).

Tomorrow, I start my first day in the new job on a customer site - in Huntingdon, as it happens. Exciting, with some trepidation. It'll be good, I think.

I've had a good birthday, even if Moo's not finished knitting my present (a pair of lovely socks)...

Labels: birthday, drink, food, knitting, party, work

Necking

(backposting) Had a bit of a run-in with my mother-in-law when I lost my temper today. Silly on my part, and mainly because I'm a bit stressed about the new job starting so soon, etc., but it wasn't good.

On the other hand, Moo and I went out for a lovely meal, just the two of us. This is an all-too-rare occurrence, but as the new job is definite, and we have (for a chance) got some money in the bank, we decided to take up the offer of some childcare, and headed out. By the time we got back at 2200, everyone was asleep!

One thing that's been fantastic is how supportive my clergy colleagues have been throughout the job process. They've prayed for me while I've been without a job, and they've been very, very accommodating about my needing to change services around as I'm going to be away for 2 Sundays (I'll be leaving home early this Sunday to catch a flight at noon). Many thanks to them for everything.

Ah, yes, and the necking thing? I sent a Twitter and Facebook update saying that I was going to take Moo for a really good neck. My phone decided that this was more likely than "meal" (what sort of guy does it take me for?), so I had to send a second one to retract...

Labels: clergy, food, Moo

Not a new job

I'd hoped to hear today that someone was going to offer me a new job, but it turns out that they're not. Not desperately happy, obviously. Went for a knickerbocker glory with Moo, at a favourite café in Clare. She had a bacon and egg butty. This certainly helped.

Spent a good deal of the day configuring a desktop machine that's been around for a while, but I'd not had the chance to set up. It's pretty much ready, and working well. Nice (though I'd prefer an nVidia card to an ATI one, as I can't get the dual head stuff to work properly with it).

Had a funeral visit this evening, which was just what I needed, to be honest. A chance to care for other people, rather than myself. And some humour, too.

Labels: food, work

Baptisms galore

Quite a day, really. I'm about to do the ironing, after a lovely 5.4km (3.34 mile) walk. That was after putting the girls to bed. We'd spent most of the after noon at Sally's post-ordination party. The girls met a 7 year old who they played with, so that was good, and it was nice to meet some of Sally's family and friends.

But it was the morning which was most interesting. It was my first "lone" Sunday, and 5 minutes before the 0800 started, I was concerned that noone was going to turn up. Luckily, 4 people turned up, which was a relief. After a 40 minute or so service, I then had well over an hour to kill before the 1000. What to do? Well, I walked down the hill to the WH Smith at the bottom of town, and bought a copy of the Observer. And on the way up, I noticed that there was a caff open. Not a café: a caff. Yes, and open caff. So, was my eating there simply an excuse for a cooked breakfast, or an opportunity for expressing my ministry of presence with parishioners? You get to decide. At least I 'fessed up.

So, after another trip to WH Smith's for some mints, I was back up to the church for our 1000 Eucharist. I do enjoy celebrating the Eucharist: it's great. And after that, we had a baptism. Well, I say _a_ baptism. I'd been told to expect 5 candidates (all children, from 4 families), and lots of family and friends. We god under way with a pretty full church, and it was only at the presentation of the candidates that I realised that there seemed to be 6 children dressed up for the occasion. I stopped and demanded a recount, and there were, in fact, 6 children, from 5 families. Luckily, we discovered the we had all the relevant paperwork, and were ready to proceed.

It was a blast. There were so many children, friends and family that half of the job was policing and traffic control. I had to restart the service and explain that the congregation needed to read out the bits in bold, or the service really wouldn't work. There was lot of children-noise, lots of adult noise, lots of photos, and lots of joy. The first candidate was a little boy who was asleep when it came to the actual baptism, but not when I poured the water over his forehead. He woke up, and cried, loudly. Which rather put the other children off. And I've never needed to raise my voice in a service whilst micced and amped up. I loved it, and had lots and lots of very positive feedback (and not from the mic-amp-speaker system). And about 270 people in the church.

Labels: baptism, curacy, eucharist, food