Baking day

I've been baking pumpkin slices for DH to take to work with him. They are just so yummy, and no sugar or fat in sight. Just cooked pumpkin, fruit'n'nuts, flour and baking powder, an egg and lots of spices. OK, I'll admit I do put a handful of chocolate chips in each batch, but you don't have to. They freeze beautifully and travel fairly well.

I also made some ghee. That's super easy. You just stick a couple of packets of butter into a saucepan on low heat, and let it melt and crackle away, and fill the kitchen with the scent of popcorn. When the crackling noise stops, the only bubbles are directly above the heat source and the scummy stuff on the top has turned golden, turn the heat off and let it cool in the pan. Once cooled, strain it and Bob's your uncle. I keep most of mine in the fridge except for one tub that lives out in the worktop, which stays less solid so we can spread it on bread instead of butter. It's healthier and DH prefers the taste.

After I'd pureed some more pears for the next batch of pumpkin slices, it was time to make the tea - easy cheat's tea of homemade mayonnaise (I'll post that recipe another day!) and smoked salmon on ghee-spread Ezekiel bread. MMMmmmmmmmmm.

And having spent all day in the kitchen, tomorrow I'll be doing some arting or crafting.

AnorEXic - possible?

Today I went out for lunch with a couple of friends. One is a recovering anorexic, and the sweetest thing. I've seen her socially 3 times now, not including the other times when she's cancelled at the last moment.

The first time was between meals and we didn't eat. The second time she felt poorly and ate only a banana all day. Today she didn't eat lunch with us, saying she was on a detox diet.

I want to believe her. She was looking good - healthier than last time I saw her - and was giving us all the right words about loving herself and feeling positive. But at what stage should a friend of a recovering anorexic start to be worried about unusual eating habits? I don't want to be the friend who let her down. Tough one, huh?

Fantastic day scrapping!

Today was my first class at the EK Success Scrapbook Design University! I had a great time. There are only 3 of us in this class so we had plenty of attention. Now I have homework to do for next week, as well as bringing in photos of the work we've done so far. I just love working with pretty stuff, and sharing ideas with other people. So cool!

Then I got home, and my newly rebuilt-with-Vista laptop downloaded some Windows updates which caused it to think that my version of Vista was not validated. Hrmph. Wouldn't start Windows at all except to take us to the web-page where a plenty of other people have reported the same problem but nobody has found out why yet. The Backup and Restore function was disabled in Safe mode, and it was only by DH helping me delve deep into the bowels of it that we found a way of restoring it. Phew.

Our friends have been on at us for literally years to BUY A MAC. Every time we have hassles with virus protection software. Whenever our ancient limping desktop falls over, causing DH to spend a frustrated weekend sorting it out. Every time we have to upgrade, buy new bits, just to keep it working. We've been researching and they've got a point. Macs aren't that upgradable. Once you need more memory, you have to buy a new one, not just buy more memory like Windows PCs. So you have to throw away a perfectly good monitor, hard disk etc. No trade-in, no recycling. But it's not nearly as susceptible to viruses, is a lot more stable, there's a lot more built-in software and the graphics are tremendous. So, decisions, decisions. Meanwhile, thank goodness it's working again - or rather, thank DH :-)

Snapped

I had a dream...

last night. I was at a church wearing a green, strapless wedding dress, and I'd just realised that I hadn't shaved my armpits. Apart from displaying a major, possibly certifiable insecurity - what does that mean then?

Hair straighteners

In this land where all the trendy girls have black, straight, shiny hair hanging across their faces, I'm a foreign misfit. I have thick, brown hair that is straight on top of my head, but the layers underneath look like a poodle. When I've cut it short in the past, it called to mind a thatched roof.

So I went to the hair-dresser's and got my hair straightened to look pretty for Christmas Day. Not rebonded (although there was a small language problem and I came close to that) - just temporarily with those flat-iron hair straighteners. We liked it so much that DH bought me a set for Christmas.

Now it took the poor hair-dresser nearly 2 hours to straighten it, so I'll be honest, I've been putting off trying out this new gadget for the sake of my aching arms. The other night DH was watching something on TV so dull that I was seriously considering doing some ironing. Yes, that dull. Then I remembered the straighteners and had a go at using them in the dark.

I didn't do a bad job. Only burned one finger. Arms are still attached, and it only took half an hour. And to my amazement, it actually worked! I've joined the ranks of the hip and trendy.

Now I just have to get a yellow baby doll dress and a 6" wide bling belt around my ribs, some black and white striped knee-socks, purple pumps and a giant glittery pink hand-bag with fluffy toys dangling off it, and I'll look right at home on a Saturday morning in the city malls...

White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits!

We were planning on going to the Zoo today, on DH's last day off, but the weather really does change on February 1st here. It's officially the end of the dry and windy season, and the beginning of the spring pre-monsoon, which means rain first, then thunderstorms as the temperature slowly rises. Before I came here, the thought of scheduling my day so that I wasn't showering during the lightning never occurred to me. Today it's been sunny, black, sunny, black with increasing blackness. So I don't think we'll be going anywhere.