Four weeks to go and we're almost sorted with all of the paperwork for the new house - most of what's left to do is done by the solicitor, according to Andy, except the handing over of large wads of cash! It doesn't seem quite real yet that we're moving, and my preparations for it so far are nil, but I know it'll hit me when we're about two weeks away and I'll be able to go into over-drive and get stuff done - doing tiny bits over a longer time just isn't me.
Probably should start looking for a new couch, though, would be a pain to move this one in and then have to take it back out - the stairs are rather slim so I have a feeling that'd be a Hassle.
Herbs
A lot of the recipes I'm using at the moment require herbs and, unfortunately, Tesco only sells the in rather large bags - enough for maybe 4/5 portions. It's rare that I need to use that much of a given herb in a week and, beyond that, the packets have usually wilted and lost their flavour. So, once in a while, I end up with a potted herb - these are usually a good bit more expensive than the packet herbs and, often, don't last much longer than them, being cooped up in pots which are really too small for their size.
Occasionally, though, you find one in the discount section for half what the packets are going for - win-win, really as it means you get more herbs, for less even if it does die off. However, I've had a couple of tenacious ones who've decided they'd actually rather keep living, thankyouverymuch and have clung on past their expected expiry dates. The thyme I wasn't so surprised by - those buggers are hard to kill and often end up rampaging through herb boxes, smothering everything runtier than they are, but the coriander I really had expected to wither off quickly.
Either way, I was beginning to feel like I'd best actually take care of them if they were to keep living since, as I mentioned, their roots are busting out of their pots. I don't have a handy supply of spare pots, but I do have quite a few empty two-litre bottles...
Although the bottles weren't a whole deal wider, they are a lot deeper - and both plants seem to be happy in them - perhaps too happy in the case of the coriander - it hit the new soil and sprang into flower production mode. Oh well, at least it's still pretty, fragrant greenery.
Food
Since my last post, we've had a really good run on meals - some lucky picks which have tasted really pretty nice - what I categorise under 'would totally eat that again!'.
Spicy Vegetable Chapati Wraps, Smoked Salmon, Watercress and Horseradish Pasta, Falafel Burgers and Fish O'Leekie
The chapati wraps surprised me - I didn't expect to like them as much. Andy and I came to the conclusion that they seemed like a Greek/Indian version of fajitas. With no-fat yoghurt, this was a really low fat, tasty meal.
At first glance, the combination of flavours in the smoked salmon pasta looked a little odd - horseradish, lemon and crme frache? However, it turned out to be really rather good - though I toned the lemon down (the lemons we get seem super sour so I only used 1/6th of the amount the recipe asked for) and only added a heaped tsp of horseradish instead of two tbsp's as I'm not a huge fan of the flavour and didn't want it to be overwhelming. It was really, really nice - zingy but deliciously thick.
Though crme frache isn't exactly fat free, it was really the only ingredient that had much in it, so the dish as a whole felt like luxury itself given my current dietary regime, but wasn't actually all that bad in real terms!
Talking of which, I seem to have lost another 3-4lbs this week - which is awesome, if rather worrying in that I'm 'not trying' and it seems rather fast. Knowing that eating a lot of fat = crippling stomach pains has worked better than any diet I've ever been on but I can't help but wistfully look at cheese on my way past when we shop, knowing that if it were just a diet I could at least have a little bit... Ah well, hospital next week for them to scan me and see if they can find out for sure what it is.
Cinema
When we were checking our Tesco vouchers this week I noticed that they were all out of date - or rather I noticed that all of the item ones were and proceeded to tear them up... of course I found out not long after that the monetary ones lasted a whole lot longer... Oops.
Not such a disaster as it might have been though - we rescued them and Andy used the code on them to redeem us some cinema tickets instead! We'd been thinking of doing that anyway, but this sort of prodded us along more, hehe. The good thing about these tickets is that it makes them cheaper than even Orange Wednesdays, with the bonus of not being tied to an actual day.
Hopefully we'll catch Terminator before it goes out of the cinemas, and maybe Harry Potter in a few weeks once it's calmed down a little. The tickets last for quite a while when you get them so you can grab a pile and stick them in your wallet.
Anime
Anime seems to be creeping back at me, currently - someone mentioned an anime or two to look and up and end up finding a few more and... well... it seems this last spring / summer season has been full of shoujo style stuff - cutesy and sparkly and cheerful - just my thing (yes, I am ashamed at my taste in anime, sometimes). Currently watching K-On! and have Hatsukoi Limited to watch next - with a short waiting list of others... any suggestions are appreciated!
Washorama
I'll finish the post off here as I need to put on another round of washing. We always seem to manage to wear more clothes than can be dried on our drying racks in a week (we've no outside line) and I'm taking these few weeks of warm and dry weather to make good headway in the battle against the mountain. At the moment it is becoming more like a small hill, so it's the time to push our advance! >=(
| Originally published at /AFK. |
First, for those seeing this via LJ, I footered around today and found a plugin which would allow me to publish from Wordpress to Livejournal without having to footer with paid subscriptions and rss feeds - Hoorah! So, you can welcome the return of my shining presence to your LJ friend's page! I've come to love wordpress, being able to do my own thing and have more control over my content to the extent that I really cannot imagine going back within those confines, but I am glad I can now update here and feed it through to LJ.
Much /hugs to those I've not seen for a long time (too many of you) and here's to reconnecting...!
Low-Fat Snacks
Lies, damn lies and 'low-fat' nibbles. This week, when we went shopping, Andy and I were scouting for snacks which I could eat which were low-fat. Low calorie is all good and well, but not as necessary - I don't eat a huge amount of sugary foods, so I don't mind getting some extra from nibbles if it means tasty, low-fat nibbles. Unfortunately, snacks low on fat but high in sugar, whilst common enough, are usually very sweet -and I wanted something savoury, too!
I do eat a lot of fruit, incidentally - I just like variety.
Nibbles
First up, were Carr's 'Nibbles' - rosemary & thyme biscuits. When we picked them up, we thought they were water biscuits and the fat-levels were pretty non-existant. However - the fat values were for single biscuits and added up quickly given the small size of the biscuits.
However, they're not marketed as low fat and, if you stick to just eating a few biscuits (a small handful, say), they're a tasty treat and a lot less fat-saturated than crisps.
Snack-O-Jacks
These are terrible. Well, no, that's not true, they taste lovely; unfortunately I'd fallen for the marketing and figured 'rice cakes can't be bad' and munched a packet down before looking at the values - worse than some crisps I've seen! Tasty, but certainly not low in fat.
The search continues...
Tasty Dinners
This weeks interesting recipe (so far, at least) has been spicy spaghetti with garlic mushrooms. This was one where the comments section of the GoodFood websites really comes into its own - suggesting swapping celery for courgettes, adding a little spinach to up veg content, as well as more herbs and seasoning. Even with all of the additions this recipe was a tasty pasta dish - something like a lighter, veggie-filled arabbiata.
Artses
I've managed to do a bit more drawing recently, too - this sketch is of my D&D character, Loisha - a half-elf rogue.
Moving
It feels like we're slowly getting closer to moving into the new place. It's cool, but frustrating at the same time - everything is geared toward 'The Move' but nothing can really be physically done yet. With 6 weeks to go, it's too early to start packing and too long to worry about getting any bits and pieces we're thinking of picking up (for gardening and so forth). Cannot wait to get going!
| Originally published at /AFK. |
(especially running alongside the division of clinical psychology...)
Just some of my personal highlights (in no particular order):
Mugenkyo were awesome.
Tequila... oh god. So drunken. I love you ALL X3 AWESOMENAWA!
(no pics ;_;!)
Boobies were prodded 8D
Many awesome cosplays (I got so few photos ;;)
Jan's Panel:
Comic Panel was pretty cool too though I've never really read VGCats... Seeing how Dave Cheung did his art was funky.
The Pub Quiz was great too (even if they did fail and get the wrong winners D8)
Two CCS models (Thank you Baka :3!)
Finally, as always, meeting up with people was great!
Gallery / bigger pics for those who're interested: *clicky*
National Geographic Channel has informed my that the Algerian Special Forces have / had a unit who are known as ninjas.
X3
Secondly, Cammy, Baka and I finished watching Firefly (we started last weekend). It is such an awesome series and I now need to see Serenity!
Thirdly, Cammy tried to pry PHP into my head. I won't pretend I understand it AT ALL but we did eventually manage to make an upload script to make updating the ALStudios website a lot easier.
Fourthly, we then got a visit from Mamma today. I hadn't seen Chiyo in god knows how long and it was really great to catch up. Ever since HUB closed it's been hard to catch up with everyone. I really would like to see a lot of people more often! I'll need to organise something and prod people. ^^;
So, yeah, a pretty good weekend.
Other stuff I've been up to include buying faux leather, making bendy shapes out of foam and rabily attacking polymer clay >D Cosplay makes me feel shiny ^^;
also, p.s. Fuzzie, goddamnit I keep thinking how much you look like Summer Glau (River from Firefly) Every time I watched it I kept thinking that O_o;
( Friday )
( Saturday )
( Sunday )
( Overall )
Oh and for posterity:
We're in a field.
Nomi dropped the ham.
Cammy punched the ham.
We ate all the ham.
There is no ham.
- Mood::D
^_______________________________________
( LOTS about Amecon )
Things i loved:
The overall sense of people looking after and caring about each other within our GA group.
The fact we hardly went to anything and still had the most awesome time.
The really good atmosphere at the con.
Getting to know some people a whole lot better.
Not so good things:
I got a sore throat which lasted all through the con and meant i sounded pre-pubescent with all my squeaks etc.
I seem to have a bruise on my knee (a huge one) and i can't remember where i got it!
I couldn't wear my comfortable clothes back home as they were wet U_u.
If anyone remembers something i haven't got here then please tell me so i can add it as i want to have a good record of what we all did when i read back on this later ^_^.
Pictures can be found here under the photos section.
- Mood:
^_^
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