Frozen Assets

As a try & tessellate a bag of frozen peas into the crowded drawers of my overfull freezer for the 4th time I have to admit defeat. My freezer is severely overstocked. I can see when I poke about looking for room that there are half empty ice cream tubs, bags of random vegetables, loaves of bread, and even stuff from last Christmas ... seriously I could see a massive roll of sausagemeat stuffing. Why did I think that if it wasn't used at Christmas we would suddenly think when it wasn't Christmas hey we need a roll of sausagemeat stuffing?!

I can also see takeaway cartons crammed with the remains of variously fish pie / mushroom pie / potato & aubergine bake / salmon lasagne etc etc . Clearly I was under the impression I would find a time when a single takeaway carton full of food would be ideal. But in reality they contain too much for one (so there would still be some left over) but not enough for 2 - neither use nor ornament as my nan used to say.

The bottom line, the reason for my crazy full freezer is that I hate wasting food - hate it. For me it is a mortal sin, food is precious & scarce & should be eaten up. Not thrown away. Hence the stuffed freezer. However as I peer in drawers that are cracking under the strain, examine cartons from every angle atttempting to guess the contents & look at some of the sell by / freeze by / eat before dates I have to accept that no matter how much I want to, I cannot possibly keep this stuff. I have to go get the bin bags. Or risk poisoning the family ...

UPDATE - I did indeed attack the freezer ... but it bit back! Whilst trying to open the lid of something with frozen hands to check the contents, the lid shattered and sliced the pads of the index, ring & middle fingers of my right hand. Blood everywhere and OUCH! Have managed to stem the flow with 2 tight plasters on each finger but in proper pain ... that'll teach me! And left hand / right hand thumb & little finger typing ... ie slowly .... :-(

September Sunrises

So, as far as I am concerned autumn has now officially arrived. What makes it official? The KC is spending inordinate amounts of time indoors snuggled up either on cashmere jumpers in wardrobes or snuggled up to her mummy at night, the mornings are a little on the dark side as I drive through the fauxsurreycountry to drop fauxsurreyhubby at the station but that darkness soon dissipates & I am now rewarded by glorious sunrises over the stud farm opposite our house. But the thing that really put the lid on 'officially autumn' was that 2 nights ago the heating came on!

As the skies were clear & starry, the mercury dropped right down to 4 degrees and so the boiler whooshed into life for the first time in 5 months or so and the radiators made that unique click click "I'm waking up" noise and soon the house was beautifully warm.


We went out & bought a fire log so we can get a roaring fire going this weekend (weather forecast not great) and I have been burrowing about in the loft, swapping the suitcase full of summer gear for the suitcase full of cashmere socks & blankets. Ah. Next thing you know it'll be Bonfire Night ... then Christmas (yay!)

All work & no play ...

.. makes the blog exceptionally dull. I am conscious that I have lots of work to do and as such have been taken over by sensible thoughts. I missed completely my opportunity to comment on Prince Harry behaving like a typical soldier ahead of a tour of duty & getting drunk & naked & foolishly showing his bits to someone with a camera in a room in Vegas... fine if you like that kind of thing I guess ...

I also missed the chance to wax lyrical about the Paralympic closing ceremony which I absolutely loved and which in my opinion left the "proper" closing ceremony standing. Having Coldplay there was a stroke of genuis; a stadium band who are pretty much without ego they got out there & did the job they were asked to do brilliantly! (and didn't try & promote a new single ...)  And I loved the story Sir Philip Craven told of the 5 year old girl who on reading a book about pirates was asked what the man with a parrot, eyepatch & one leg did  ... well says 5 year old .. he only has 1 leg so he must be an athlete!

As ever there were some things I wasn't sure of - Rhianna? and Jay-Z? Hmm.... well all I know is that it was brilliant & I was proud. And someone I worked with recently has come back with a Paralympic Bronze!! How amazing is that??

And then Andy Murray goes & beats Djokovic to win the US Open. Blimey! I think he managed a smile but I can't be sure. Outstanding!

Then if I am right the big news now is that the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge went on holiday in the middle of nowhere ahead of an official Asian tour but someone French found out where they were in France on their jolly hols & thought they would camp out with a huge telescopic lens & that the world would be interested in unbelieveably bad quality photos of Kate's (assuming they are v small) boobs. Which seems to have given Carte Blanche to all media to drag out photos of  Diana looking sad again ... although the Daily Express needs no excuse

Yes all this work means I have completely missed my chance to comment on what an odd world we live in - and to offer some words of advice to our young royals. Keep your clothes on eh?

Am I talking to myself??

I am running a project right now that is spanning the globe. However it is not as exciting as it sounds. The client has precisely 16 1/2 pence to spend so I am not leaping from jet to jet, checking in & out of 5 star spa hotels, no I am harnessing the power of the internet.

Am watching all groups in China, India, Vietnam, Brazil etc live on line (conceptually amazing I accept that) and I have been Skype-ing the overseas moderators to brief them. So in theory I have done the old "face to face" briefing as I saw their faces.

However I feel as if I have been talking to myself. I am currently listening to a group that is going off on tangents. Not small "Oh that's fine" tangents but HUGE tangents, kind of like I wanted to understand bananas & they are talking about pineapples. And I cannot reach the pineapple moderator as I am not sitting merely feet away behind a 1 way mirror, I am online on another continent. So I am forced to let them waffle on off topic and pretty much waste a group until I can call her.... when she finishes!

It has only served to strengthen my resolve. You need to BE THERE to make this qualitative research lark work properly. Hey Ho.

If I could talk to the animals ...

... I would be sharing stern words with them today; yes this morning I would give them quite a serve. Here I am up at sparrows whatsit quietly logged on, strong coffee in hand & ready to view some meetings in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I let the KC out super early as it felt rude not to & what did she repay me with? A "gift" of course. After 10 mins in the great outdoors she brought me a tiny live field mouse.

KC Victim Rescue System was immediately deployed and as I was mid rescuing said tiny rodent a MASSIVE dog fox wandered out of the Leylandi hedge merely feet away from me, Mr Mouse & the KC!! I gave him a stern wave of my hand & stomp of feet I can tell you - and try doing all that silently as despite it feeling like I'm in Knowsley Safari Park I am actually in my back garden in the FauxSurreyCountryside & I don't want to wake my neighbours!

If I could grunt & squeak & squawk with the animals I certainly would today.

We've all just been on a summer holiday ...

... missing home comforts for a week or two

	Home	Holiday	*explanation
Completely rural	X*	√	*But we’re semi-rural
Completely silent	X	√	No. We are not silent.
Spacious & Capacious	√	√*	*But only really the holiday home kitchen
1400 spring orthopaedic back support bed	√	X*	*Try an ortho airbed balanced over 2 single beds. Which punctured 1st night - no repair kit handy.
400 TC Egyptian cotton sheets & bedding	√	X*	*Patterned poly-cotton - mmmm
DiLonghi coffee maker making perfect coffee	√	X *	*cafetiere .. hey ho
A paid for cleaner	√	X*	*I was chief cleaner & bottle washer … whilst I still paid my cleaner at home L
Air-conditioning unit	√	X*	*AND it was 41 degrees Celsius when we arrived … had to wait till supermarkets opened – 24 hours of dying in unbearable heat (NB see Pool)
Fans	√	X*	*see above
Blu-ray DVD player	√	X*	*Not the end of the world I guess but we took blu-ray DVD’s ..
Heated Pool with lovely pool furniture?	√ /X*	√*	*don’t have own pool at home. Super kind neighbour invites me to swim with her in proper heated pool – holiday home had solar heated i.e. FREEZING; and not one cushion on plastic loungers
Clean pool?	√√	XXX	NOT clean. In fact algae heaven. Ugh owner had to tip extra salt & algae bombs in … 4 days after we called. Spent most days acting as pool boys / girls just to be able to swim without risk of disease.
Insect repellent plug-ins?	Not necessary	X	Had to go to supermarket & buy
Kitty cat to love & cuddle?	√√	X	And I was PAYING  a cat sitter … L
Irritating teenagers 24/7 for 16 days?	X*	√√	*I only suffer at weekends at home
Takes 12 hours solid driving to get there?	X	√√

Hmm. Summer hols. Count ticks & crosses & you get where I'm coming from. FauxSurreyHubby has promised in front of witnesses I NEVER have to do "en famille" self catering nonsense again.
Am already checking out One & Only locations...