GRRRR

So I have been going to the gym for what, a month now ? Or there abouts. How much weight have I lost ? None! That's right not a single pound, what the hell!
I don't know what I am doing wrong, I am not eating more then usual, I am burning on average 330 cals per every 30 Min's I spend on the elliptical, + the weights machine + Yoga once a week.

I am slightly irked to say the least.

WP has lost weight by doing nothing! OK so I got him to switch from regular soda to diet a while ago, and I have been paying more attention to what we have both been eating ( sometimes I wonder if he is a lost cause)

I am becoming slightly obsessive about calories, I can tell you now right off the top of my head, without even going to look that Quaker Maple & Brown sugar instant oatmeal has 160 Cal's, 1/2 cup serving of bran flakes with skimmed milk is 140, one pot of low fat yogurt 140...The list goes on...

Its not fair, maybe I should try this out :


Other then that life is good!

Ouch

Nasty....


Update:

The Bro and I have spoken about the yogurt incident and he has stated that he will buy some more for him and me.
And he did buy me 2 chicken snack wraps from McDonalds~ they look as though they are pretty healthy ?

In fact the other day he went there and asked what he could get me for lunch, I said just get one of those burgers off the $ menu( because I don't want to spend all his money) but he refused and said they were full of grease.

He is not such a bad guy really, we had a good long chat yesterday and he understands me, as I do him.

The end of the incident.

That one anyway ;)

Monday again.....

Ok so it's not Monday, its Saturday but as WP has Thur/Fri off at the moment it feels like Monday.

Got a lot done over the "weekend".

Thursday we went to a junk yard where he managed to find the window crank for his truck which for the last few months we have been scouring the internet for, the guy charged him a tenner for two! Deal.
Not only that he also got a glove box and ashtray in the same colour as his dash from the only Ford Ranger in the yard.
He's getting there its taking time but its great!

Friday:Got loads done, took the truck to get some work re-done that had supposed to have been done....
Got to the mechanics, where the complete previous staff had been "let go" and all new people employed. They re-did the work and cleaned all the back brakes for free!
The new manager was a nice guy, although he had one of them eyes that look at you when he is not actually looking at you which when he was talking to me wasn't looking at me.
He thought I was Australian, which is re-freshing, its alot better then being thought of as French!-which I have been asked before...

While they were dealing with the truck we went across the road to Taco Bell. the woman serving wanted to know where I was from and was really excited when I said England, she said my voice reminded her of Supernanny!- I sound nothing like Supernanny- she is from the south. I am from the north, but the woman seemed so excited I had to laugh.
When I first got here a girl in Walgreens asked me if I knew Supernanny... Who would have thought Jo would have made such a huge impact over here...

Went and opened a bank account with the credit union down the road, I am nearly halfway there to the fee's I need to get all my papers in order. Yay!

Went grocery shopping, spent a fortune, nothing new there.

Came home to lots of parcels from the postman, mostly Car speakers, tail lights and computer parts but I ordered a book from e-bay the other day for the bargain price of $2.25+ shipping. It came.
It was an impulse buy I was reading about it online, checked it out on e-Bay where I saw it with a minute left to buy.
Here it is & here is how I was reading it.....

I find the chocolate & walnut cookies go down quite nicely when reading...

Have a great weekend everyone ;)

Randomness

So this morning I learnt something, I discovered that Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or whatever you call it, was a celebration to do with lent!
How cool, a carnival , beads, boobs and mucho alcohol.

How do we celebrate it in the UK (and parts of Canada) ?

We make pancakes (crepes) and eat them, sometimes we flip them in the air, some people hold pancake races- basically running down the street frying pan in hand flipping said pancake as you go.

Hmmm now which looks more fun ?

I admit I used to love pancake day - For some unknown reason most British people are brought up thinking that Shrove Tuesday is the only day we are allowed to eat pancakes.
This must be the only time of year the people at Jif lemon look forward too. Jif lemons are silly plastic lemon shaped containers of lemon juice, most Brits (well me) like our pancakes (crepes) with just sugar and lemon juice. Yum Yum yum.



A couple of other things:

On the news last night there was a story about the family of a 10 year old girl who were suing their local school district & a construction company which left their daughter with a six inxh scar on her head and three metal plates.
Now thats a terrible tale don't get me wrong but when the reported read out the name of the company and then went on to mention it several times. I had to laugh,I couldn't help my self.

The name of the company : Big Boys Steel Erections.

***

Remember the Jilly Cooper book I ordered off ebay from the stupid woman who doesn't do pay pal ?
Well still no book, no check been cashed, so I send her a message asking for the status of my order.
This morning we get this back:"hello, I haven't received any payment from you. and also your husband wanted to cancel the bidding, and the only way I could stop this bidding was to let it end and then leave feedback."

• Ok so first off I asked her to withdraw the bid, because she basically could not be bothered to get off her ass and go and find out how much the shipping would be.
• Secondly, no she let the auction end and then sent a payment invoice the next day with 10 pounds shipping (around $20)
• Thirdly I emailed her to say I had sent the check (the next day)
• Lastly , she hasn't left us any feedback whatsoever!
  

I think personally she is probably going to have to pay bank charges for cashing a check in Otherwise I am sure she would have contacted us long before now ( It was sent on the 5th) if she had not heard anything.
Maybe she will in future learn her lesson & only offer items for sale to UKers.

I think I am just gonna tell her not to bother, cancel the check , the only problem now is WP's generous mood Re the book has long expired so I wont be able to get it for a long while now. Which is pissing me off because I really was looking forward to reading it.

Stupid welsh person.

Pixie in the kitchen...

This morning, inspired by the stench of ripe banana I had a brainwave.
Banana muffins!

If even the likes of nonny are cooking then I feel I should make an effort too. Even though if you follow nonny's kitchen adventure, which was in turn inspired by Pissy ( the perfect wife, she looks good, keeps a clean house and can cook like an angel. All this and she has the exciting job of taking DNA tests to see who's the baby's daddy- I hate her*) you will see in plain view that nonny used a packet mix!

So I get onto cooks.com for a recipe, now some of you may remember my previous disastrous attempt at making muffins. I have never tasted anything so horrible.
I swear I followed that recipe to the letter too.
I jot down the measurements etc and head to the kitchen. Fire up the oven and away I go. Rachel ray has nothing on me.- I wish.

They are looking pretty good, dare I taste one ? Why not I cant expect WP to do all the suffering in this relationship.

Here I go.

They are still a little too warm but its looking good, they are springy, moist and light, and guess what ?
They taste dam good even if I say so myself.
They would have been nicer with some walnuts in but beggars cant be choosers.

Exhibit A.(complete with bite mark to prove I tasted it)

* of course I don't really hate Pissy I love her just as everyone else does. :)

Rain rain go away....

Has it even stopped raining today ?

Most of today has been spent working (tearing my hair out) on my new web site.
I have the main page done and am trying to sort out the mess that are the internal pages, I've given up now....

Anyway here is the finished cover page, I felt "purple", I lost the arch girl logo and opted for an arch fairy (pixie) instead, Tinkerbell cannot be used for commercial gain I am sure....Anyway, I feel in need of a stiff drink now!



Uneventful weekend really, Chinese (vegetable lo-mein) for dinner Friday, Jack in the box for breakfast Saturday, followed by a trip to lovely Wal-Mart.



I did however happen upon these at the dollar store, I didn't even know that salt & vinegar were available here ! Highlight of the weekend !

Food, glorious food!

Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard!
While we're in the mood --
Cold jelly and custard!
Pease pudding and saveloys!
What next is the question?
Rich gentlemen have it, boys --
In-di-gestion!

A few of my favourite (UK) foody things....

• Branston Pickle: I prefer the smaller chunk sandwich pickle , nothing better then cheese & Branston on Jacobs cream crackers.

• Muller Fruit corner's : Creamy yoghurt with a side order of fruit which you can eat how ever you like it. They also do crunch corners which have things like kellogs cereal on the side. Best flavours Strawberry or Cherry.

• Flora sunflower spread: Margarine, I just like the taste of the sunflower spreads better. Either this or the olive spreads.

• Yoplait Petits Filous: Teeny pots of fromage frais, marketed towards the kids market but are so tasty you often have to eat two. They even do a chocolate flavour.

• Quorn: Quorn is the greatest gift to (veggie)mankind. You can buy it fresh, frozen, deli slices for sandwiches, fully prepared ready meals. I searched and it can be bought over here (in health food stores) Of course can you imagine WP's reaction should I ask him to drive me to a health food store in search of Quorn.

• McVities biscuits: Ok cookies to you guys. Best kinds Milk chocolate digestives and Jaffa Cakes.

• Heinz Salad cream : I have mentioned this product before. Nothing better then (round) lettuce and salad cream butties. Even better if they are room temperature after sitting around a classroom all morning.

• Warburtons bread: UK bread slices are twice the size then here . Warbourtons are probably the biggest surface area. They do a "Toastie" loaf esp for toast. MMM hot buttered toast

• Bisto Vegetarian Gravy Granules : A must for a Sunday dinner.

• Cadbury products: Who doesn't love chocolate! Personal faves. Whole nut bars, Crunchies and CURLY WURLY'S

• Mars Maltesers : I don't know why you don't sell them here! Best served chilled eaten one at a time whilst watching a good movie or reading a good book.

• Sayers cheese & Onion pasties: Ben will have to help me out here for I don't know if Sayers is a regional bakery store or not. Lunch time pass any Sayers and you will see the lines of people waiting for their hot pasties. Cheese & Onion are the best . Sayers also do a really good vegetarian sausage roll.

• One product not missed : McVities Penguin Biscuit. Yuk I hate penguins. It seems most of the UK must do too because they are always on special offer.

Kitchen Mishap #2123...

Last night I cooked spaghetti and meat sauce (for him) and spaghetti and fake meat sauce (for me). Everything was going well. The pasta was cooked and ready to drain and the sauces were bubbling along just nicely. I had even managed to get a shower whilst it was cooking. I lifted the huge pasta pot and drained it into the sink, poured some olive oil in there and turned around to get the black pepper to sprinkle over it.......
That's when things went wrong! The pepper is kept in the cupboard above the extractor fan. I had to reach right back to get the pepper container, I grasped it pulled my arm out of the cupboard and with it came a carton of coffee, which landed with a big PLOP into the meat sauce. The wooden spoon catapulted through the air and landed on the floor. The coffee carton had made a huge splash splattering meat sauce on the wall, on the extractor fan. On the floor, on the stove top (which had been cleaned the day before), on the ceiling, all over the side of the microwave, all up the sleeve of the light grey T-shirt (his not mine) that I was wearing , finally into my just washed hair.
I was NOT amused....

Of course by the time I cleaned up all the mess (excluding the ceiling its still there) the pasta had gone all sticky and stodgey.

A bag of chips please.....

Fish &Chpis

Fish and chips are one of the foods us brits are probably most known for (the other being Roast beef & yorkshire pudding).

A few facts about fish & chips.(according to the Fish & Chip Takeaway Guide)

* Cod and haddock account for around 45% of all fish consumed in Britain.
* In 1999 fish friers served up more than 283 million meals a year making it the most popular takeaway among the British population.
* There are over 8,600 fish and chip shops in the UK who served up around 49,200 tonnes of fish last year.
* The record for the most portions of fish and chips served up in one day by a fish and chip shop is over 4,000!

A few facts about fish & chips according to me.

* The chips are usually soggy and (very) greasy. And very bad luck on you if you get a re-heated batch.
* I have never yet been able to finish a full portion of chips. The top ones with all the salt are nice but once the salt has gone, there is nothing to soak up the grease.
*Chips are smothered in salt & vinegar( The salt is yummy, I don't know why but it always but chippy salt always tastes better then home salt. Perhaps its the months of being in such a greasy atmosphere?). I tend to pass on the vinegar.
* in my days of eating fish it was pretty good but the batter was a little too greasy for me to finish it all. I used to pick it off and give it away.
*"Chav" families love fish n chips and cam be seen standing in line down there for the kids "*tea" at least three times a week.
* I prefer them served wrapped in paper although some shops now serve them in the polystyrene/styrofoam lidded carton. The downside of the paper is that unless you are eating them at once they tend to be all "sweaty" by the time you have got them home.

*People from the North(that's me) almost invariably refer to the midday meal as dinner, and the evening meal as Tea, whereas Southerners will call the midday meal lunch, and the evening meal dinner. Tea is a light afternoon meal, usually cakes or light sandwiches, accompanied by the drink Tea.

Mushy Peas

They look horrible but they are yummy( I prefer the chip shop ones over the canned though, its funny that anyother canned green veg is a sludge colour but canned mushy peas are like bright bright green and the chip shop ones are sludge colour)

Mushy peas are dried marrowfat peas which are first soaked overnight and then simmered until they form a green lumpy paste (the better the mushy peas, the less obviously bright the colour - peas with few additives tend to form a more grey-green end product). Sodium bicarbonate is often added to soften the peas and to inhibit fermentation during soaking which reduces later flatulence. They are a very traditional northern English accompaniment to fish and chips, or in the North West are commonly served as part of the popular snack of pie and peas (akin to the Australian pie floater, although using mushy peas instead of a thick pea soup) and are considered a part of traditional British cuisine. Mushy peas can be bought in tins; one of the most popular brands is Batchelors.They are also sometimes served in batter as a pea fritter. In the North West (Cheshire/Merseyside areas) it is commonly served with two fried eggs on top as a latenight snack.that's news to me, I have never heard of fried eggs being served with them ?

Mushy peas are dried marrowfat peas which have been soaked overnight and then boiled. They are a great favourite of the north of England and are a traditional accompaniment to fish and chips.

INGREDIENTS: Dried marrowfat peas - 225 g, Bicarbonate of soda - tsp, Unsalted butter - 15 g, Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

COOKING:1. In a large basin, soak the peas overnight (or for at least 4 hours) in three times their volume of cold water, with the bicarbonate of soda.
2. Rinse the peas well and put them into a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer for approximately 1 - 2 hours stirring from time to time, until the peas are cooked and have fallen to a softened mush.
3. If they appear too wet, continue cooking over a low heat to drive off any excess moisture, but take care to keep stirring, to prevent them burning on the base of the pan.
4. Beat in the butter, salt and pepper to taste.

They sound much much worse then they are honest!

My Grandmother used to help out on a Saturday lunch time at the local chip shop, as a result when we had mushy peas at home she would make them the chip shop way (not too think and not an acrid green colour) Yumm.

Mushy Peas can cause chaos too.

Something nice...

I told WP that I was going to say nice things about him on my blog yesterday. But I forgot !
So here is the belated "nice things"



On Thursday he ran out to pick up a few groceries and he brought me back( without being asked) a packet of veggie mince.


Then when he went grocery shopping yesterday he came home with frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn. Ha hates vegetables especially frozen ones. If he ever eats anything green it comes from a can. I on the other hand hate with a passion canned veg( unless its sweetcorn) its always a murky green colour and all soft and stuff. Canned veg should be outlawed in my opinion. ;)

So I married a male Martha Stewart

~Webpirate's kitchen creation.~

Pizza bread.

• 1 Roll of ready to bake biscuits.
• Small amount of spaghetti sauce.
• Dried Italian herbs
• Cheese- mozzarella preferably but we made do with sharp Cheddar & Colby.

1. Remove biscuits from tube (always recommended)
2. Form dough into a ball
3. knead in some dried herbs
4. Form into how ever many rolls you want ( he did two)
5. Bake off in a pre heated(400F) oven for 10 mins
6. Remove from oven spread with spaghetti Sauce and top with grated cheese.
7. Bake for 5 further minutes.

Mmmmm tasty and cheap! At least one of us can cook. Although I am sure he has been hiding his talents so that he can moan about me.
;)

Hats off to the next Jaime Oliver.
It also has just occurred to me that Jamies show for those of you who don't know was called "The Naked Chef" which is even better seen as Webpirate spends all his time in the house in just his undies.

Shhhhhhhh.....

Another kitchen mishap.


Wp wanted an iced coffee blend tonight. I got out the blender put in the ice, milk, coffee,ice cream and cinnamon.
Blended it all up. I went a bit overboard on the coffee, I doubt I will sleep much tonight. But its pretty good. I poured it out and went back into the kitchen to tidy up. Just as I was putting the cinnamon back in to the cupboard I looked and saw it wasn't cinnamon but cayenne pepper...Oops.

Sand in my shoes...

Today I was full of good intentions, go to the pool early and actually swim. You know move my arms and legs rather then just wallow and mess about in the pool. However the first hour there was spent talking to this guy who lives the other side of the pool. He had just finished a night shift so was relaxing on his lilo ( do you call them that here ? ).
After he went I was already looking like a prune but I did do a few half hearted widths.


Then Wp's bro said (to me) he was going to make Taco salad for dinner. A few minutes later he asked me to cook the beef. So guess who ended up making his taco salad( just like I knew I would)





Then this afternoon I took my brother in laws two kids and the nextdoor neighbours girl to the small playground up the street. We walked, much to the disgust of the littlest one, all the way up the street I got "Are we there yet ?" Of course once there he was in his element , shoes off in the sand using his baseball cap as a shovel. I had a hard time getting him to come home again...And in the bath for him.




Other then that I am trying to stay cheerful despite there being crappy poker on the TV and the fact that men can be a complete pain the ass at times. I did however find a very handy little prayer on Reneas page...

Just goes to show you theres always a positive side to see, just in the nick of time...

With that I will leave you with these thoughts :

Thoughts for modern living

10 - Life is sexually transmitted.

9 - Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see one without an erection, make him a sandwich.

7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

6 - Some people are like a Slinky... Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

5 - Health freaks are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you 50 quid and a substantial tax cut saves you 50p?

2 - In the 60s, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and People take Prozac to make it normal.


AND THE NUMBER 1 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

We know exactly where any untaxed car is located among the millions of cars in Britain. But we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the DVLA* in charge of immigration...

*DVLA = Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Bitch Bitch Bitch.....

Or the one where Pixie moans a lot.




Dear Webpirate please don't read any further. I'm just venting my bad mood ;)



Today's Moans :

I wanted Pizza,had cheese pizza on the mind, they ordered Chinese, of which I am tired of. I ended up with peanut butter on toast and frosted flakes.

I hate the world poker series with passion.

I finished the book I was reading, which was quite good. A baby/ organ smuggling ring with the main character falling for the rugged half Mexican assassin and living happily ever after.

I received Junes Redbook in the mail but have already finished it.

I am tired and cranky after spending most of the day alone. Now I need to be left alone with my woes .

Thank you and goodnight ;)