Two Roast Chicken stories!

My parents bought us the two Simon Hopkinson books for Christmas:

Roast Chicken and Other Stories, and Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. It's a somewhat oddly designed cookbook - it's laid out by ingredient (and only the ones that Hopkinson likes. However, everything in it sounds incredibly tasty, so i'm going to give his version of Roast Chicken a try this weekend. We haven't roasted a chicken in AGES. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Thanks, Mom & Dad!

We had an extra bell practice at Stowmarket last night - I got to ring the Tenor (my long-held ambition) and the treble for Plain Bob Triples. I even got to 'blow behind' for PBT. I didn't do it well, but it was incredibly fun. I don't know what it is about the huge bells - your mistakes are magnified and they give me evil blisters, but the satisfaction of being the one making the big, loud, ::BONG:: that keeps everyone in the right place is unmatched. Well, maybe making an exceedingly tasty roast chicken for the inlaws will match it. I'll let you know!

Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Ok, "just finished" isn't exactly true. I finished it about 45 minutes ago, pondered it for 5 minutes, and turned back to the beginning and started again.

It is a dark but whimsical story about a boy named Nobody who lives in a graveyard and has been raised by the ghosts who live there.

Gaiman uses conventional mythology to root the story: a vampire and a werewolf are both involved, along with a witch, a sort of Cerberus creature, and some entertaining ghouls.

I *think* I may go out and buy a copy; John and James will both enjoy it and it's the kind of book I will happily reread.

Next on the list: a 'Richard and Judy' summer read which will prove to be forgettable, methinks. I can't sully my evening of reading with it, though - I'll just have to read some more Graveyard and then go to bed early.

New Slippers

John and I went to Norwich yesterday and braved the masses to stock up on some more plates and cups.  We also bought some new slippers, since mine were getting REALLY smelly (poor Fred and George) and John's had holes in the soles.

Now we are both uber-cool with boiled wool. And our tootsies are toasty.

Mine:

 

And John's:

Happy New Year

James gave me the most adorable wallet for Christmas - apparently he thought that I kept losing things in my other one. This one has really cute blue lining and lots of pockets (so I won't lose anything).

I love the dog on the front, too. I think, in honor of Rrufus, I will name him Blue-fus. [John says, "Oh, kill me now.]

A closeup of the lining (and the pockets):

John has been baking: some pizzas but mostly cinnamon-raisin bread. We're on our second loaf of the year already. YUM. It makes the house smell SO good.

On New Year's Day, we decided to go for a walk. We went east, to Brandeston, and did a circular walk from Cretingham to Brandeston and back. Just as we were arriving in Cretingham, the New Year's Day Hunt was starting out. There were tons of people on horses and an apropriately barking pack of hounds. It looked like a LOT of fun. If we ever win the lottery, John and I have decided that we'll buy a big (but warm) country house where he can have a sprawling live-steam garden railway and I can have a stable with some horses (and someone to muck out the horses).

We came across this sign on our walk, at the entrance of a field that we'd been instructed to cross. We crossed at quite a clip, but didn't see the bull (thankfully). There had definitely been one recently, though - the water trough had an appropriate amount of mud around it and there was an empty food bucket nearby.

I think I'm going to call this picture "de-fence". It was definitely part of a gate at some point, but I think that may have been a while ago.

We then came home and watched the entire 4th season of Lost over the course of 3 nights. 7 episodes on New Year's Eve, 5 on New Year's Day, and 2 last night. All done! The upside is that the back section of my sweater is now almost finished. It's surpising how much knitting you can get done while watching TV for 10 hours. It had lots of backstory and some new characters, although neither John nor I are fans of the flash-forwards. I knew it had to happen at some point - one of the first things they teach you in the Improv class at Colby is "don't put yourself anywhere where your story is constricted by your location, like on a desert island. you'll run out of room."

I also finished reading Sepulchre, which was recommended by a friend with the caveat that "she spends the whole book trying to prove to you how smart she is". That part didn't bother me as much as the complete lack of editing - she gave descriptions of the most bizarre things (like what color 'scrunchy' the main character was wearing, and the fact that she was wearing some variation on jeans, sweater and sneakers in every scene). Why, Kate Mosse? It did nothing for the story. It was a forgettable book. If you have a long plane ride and need something to read and the person next to you offers to loan it to you, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

As there was some kind of blockage in the library book queue system, I'd run out of other books to read. So I started in on Brideshead Revisited. And I'm sorry to all the people who love it, but the movie was drivel. And the book was worse drivel. I stopped half-way through - even reading it on the couch under a blanket with a nice cup of tea couldn't redeem it. I made the mistake of buying it (on a recommendation), so if anyone wants it, tell me and I'll mail it to you. Otherwise, it's going to be left as a Book Crossing.

Thankfully, the library un-blocked itself on New Year's Eve and I picked up a Maeve Binchy (shh, don't tell the intellectuals) and the newish Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book). The others in my queue are coming...supposedly.

And finally, I was tipped off by some bell ringers that Lidl had great graph paper notebooks. 3 (of varying sizes) for 99p. WOOT! This one is perfect for writing out bell methods, and I've got one of the others on the go for making knitting patterns. The paper is surprisingly solid-feeling, and it's nice to write on with both pencils and pens.

Knitting Knews

I've finished two sets of hat/mitten/booties for a friend who's having twins in a few months. Pardon the cuteness...

 

Here's a close-up of the green set:

If anyone needs a recommendation for a fun (and quick and easy) project, this is a great pattern. There seemed to be plenty others like it - it's just a question of how much embellishment you want on the various pieces. Basically, they promise to use less than a skein of yarn. Both sets together took me about 10 hours of knitting time. That's only 5 movies. Or 10 Doctor Who's, interspersed with some Top Gear. It's WAY less than a season of Lost.

 

I've also (finally) started on the sweater that I bought wool and a pattern for when we were in Rhode Island this summer. I bought it all at Bella Yarns in Warren. In August's 90 degree heat, what I did I want? A wool sweater, bitches. 

 

Ok, I'd been meaning to knit myself a sweater for ages, especially after finishing the two baby sweaters. Full disclosure: I made a sweater for myself in college, but I didn't follow a pattern. I sort of made it up as I went along and it ended up weirdly baggy with arms that were different lengths. HOT. I'm trying to avoid that with this one, although I can always take it to a tailor and have it taken in if it has funny bulges. The pattern calls for having a zipper sewn in, which I'm definitely going to pay someone to do. I am NOT going to spend months and months knitting a sweater (with fairly expensive and v. nice wool) to then mess up the zipper.

 

Something tells me it's going to take me more than 10 hours, since I've been knitting for 8 or 9 already and I only have about 8 inches of the back panel done. 

 

The leap from baby booties that take an hour (including sewing in all the ends and casting on) to a normal-person sized sweater has been somewhat harsh. I'm just hoping it fits when I'm done. I swatched a gauge and I was ok horizontally but a little long vertically. I guess the worst that will happen is that the whole thing will be a little longer than I was expecting. Actually, since the most of the sizing in the pattern is done in inches rather than rows, it shouldn't present all that much of a problem.

 

I finished reading the newest Alexander McCall Smith, La's Orchestra Saves The World. Santa brought me a signed copy. Woot! It was very McCall Smith-y and I liked it. It takes place in rural Suffolk during World War II. The village itself isn't mentioned but it's not far from Bury (which is mentioned) and there's an RAF base nearby. My favorite quote from the book takes place as La stops by the side of a country lane while riding her bicycle, and lies down on the grass to ponder.

The strange, unsettling feeling was still with her; curiously, it made her aware of just how much she loved the piece of earth upon which she lay, that particular grass, that particular tiny patch of Suffolk.

It's too cold for me to go lie down in the grass on our particular tiny patch of Suffolk, but I would if I could.

Boats in Bottles

We had a glorious stretch of not really doing anything from Christmas eve through Sunday. Some assorted bell ringing, yummy Christmas lunch with the inlaws (including an extended trains-round-the-living-room session), and some lazy lunches with various friends who we haven't seen in a while.

I was at work today, and am now off again until 2009 arrives with a jolt on January 2. The Brits miss out on all sort of fun American holidays (President's Day, people!), and the prospect of 13 weeks unbroken by bank holidays of any kind can be a little scary. Granted, we get quite a bit more vacation time than the average American, but vacation time comes with the added joy of knowing that everyone else will have been filling your email inbox with 'ToDos' while you were off sunning yourself by the pool. As opposed to national holidays, where EVERYONE is sunning themselves. Ok, maybe this doesn't apply to President's Day, but you get the idea.

John and James were home today, and spent the day making one of James' Christmas presents from John's parents: a Boat in a Bottle kit. I got intermittent email updates today from the hubby (mast is in, water is in place), and one slightly panicked phone call (where is your sewing kit with the needles and straight pins?!).

The result:

I LOVE it. So cool. Cool enough for a second picture. John says, "11/10".

We saw these when we were at the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, but didn't pick it up at the time. SO COOL!!!

Holiday wishes

Most of you will probably have seen this, but here it is again. And yes, I'm aware that Christmas was two days ago.

In other news today, Happy Birthday Dad and John!!

Dr Who TrailerMaker

James found a gizmo where you can create your own Doctor Who trailers on the BBC Website:

Here's the trailer that James made - check it out!

I LOVE the BBC (almost as much as I love David Tennant). ::swoon::

McCall-Smith Withdrawal

Every weekday, for the last...um...a long time, I've been getting the chapters from Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions, as serialised in the Telegraph.

And then today, this message along with my chapter:

Alexander McCall Smith now takes a two-week break, but will post a Christmas message for his readers.

Corduroy Mansions will resume on Monday, January 5. Thanks for reading.

::breathing deeply into a paper bag::

On the mend

Right, no posts lately because today is the first day in a week that going downstairs to have breakfast hasn't made me want to come back upstairs for a nap. My main contacts for the last week have been this lot (shown reading one of John's Linux mags):

I don't feel great, by any means, but I *think* (provided taking a shower and getting dressed doesn't wear me out) that I may actually leave the house today. I have a book to pick up at the library (and two to return). I imagine that's going to be it for my adventures, though.

Between my epic napping sessions, I've been doing some reading. I read Jasper Rees' chronicle of rediscovering his French horn, I Found My Horn, which was a little self-absorbed and very anorak-y but quite entertaining. I'm not sure how engaging it would be for a non-horn player, but I liked it. Definitely a library book, though, not one to buy and reread. I may even pick up my horn and give it a few toots.

I also finished The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton (who also wrote The House at Riverton). I really liked it - I thought the characters were very well-drawn and I loved the fairy tales that Morton weaves through the story. It was a little bit predictable, but I didn't find that it diminished the book at all.

To round out the fairy tales, I read my Tales of Beedle the Bard. Cute stories, witty commentary, glad that JKR is raising money for children, but overall: meh. Maybe in my brain I've come to terms with the fact that Harry Potter is 'finished', so this was sot of a miscellaneous extra that happened to be loosely affiliated with HP. Worth buying for the charitable aspect (and so I have the complete set), but probably not going to get reread.

I've now started on The Jewel In the Crown, which one of my friends loaned to me. My parents (and John) recognized it as a PBS/Granada miniseries from the 70s? 80s?, but I'm finding it really heavy going at the moment. It's gotten a little better, and I'm going to stick with it for a bit longer before I give up, mostly because ALL the reviews on the back (NYT, Telegraph, etc) praise its amazing wonderfulness.

To accompany all my reading, I've been listening to Kate Rusby's newest CD, Sweet Bells. We heard most of the tracks on the CD at the concert we went to in Norwich last December, and have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the CD to come out. I LOVE it. Someone on the interwebs commented that they could happily listen to KR sing the phone book, and I'd be right there listening with them, but this is the perfect Christmasy CD.

The 2 other CDs that I've ordered from Amazon for Christmas seem not to have shipped yet (the new John Tavener and a CD of the King's College Choir doing their Christmasy thing). I feel deep hatred for 'pop' Christmas stuff (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, etc), but the Rusby is sufficiently religious (and well-sung) as to be acceptable.

Ring, walk, tree, ring, ring, ring

I did an extreme amount of bell ringing this weekend. I went up to Cotton for some practice on Saturday morning at 9:30 (early!), since we were ringing for a wedding today and the bells are somewhat unusual. The ringing 'chamber' is actually a porch - it's enclosed on 3 sides but the 4th side is open to the elements. Apparently it can be fairly exciting if it's raining! We were lucky - the weather was sunny both days, but SUPER cold.

Then, this morning, I rang at Stowmarket for the regular Sunday morning ringing. I had lunch and did some Christmas present wrapping for all the stuff that's being sent tomorrow, and then it was back to Cotton for the wedding. The bells aren't used all that much (especially not in the winter!), and I thought they had a sort of steel-drum-y sound. They're also 'odd-struck', which I think means that if you try to ring just by ropesight you'll end up in the wrong place.  Anyway, tower #2 for the day.

After a reviving cup of tea in Old Newton, it was off to Great Finborough for an attempt at what would have been my third quarter peal. We missed it though - someone didn't hear a call in the middle and we got in a sufficient muddle and had to stop. We ended up starting again and ringing some other stuff, since we didn't have time to restart the quarter attempt. There will be others!

The boys and I went on a walk yesterday afternoon, after (mercifully) managing to do 95% of our Christmas shopping in one hit. WOOHOO!

Here's James, standing in...you guessed it...Water Lane!

I loved this picture of them, walking along. James is getting so big - he's grown out of his wellies and was wearing mine (with thick socks).

When we got back, we put up the Christmas tree (i.e. unmashed the branches from last year), decorated it, and put up the various other decorations, all to the rousing accompaniment of Sesame Street Christmas. C'mon, you didn't expect anything else, did you?

Radio 4: "Today" advent calendar

I was minding my own business, driving to work this morning, when the chaps on the Today program mentioned that as it was December 1, they were starting in on their annual Advent Calendar. I don't know how I missed it last year, but it's hilarious!  Each day they're giving us one more nugget of mirth. I almost went off the road with the one this morning.

Tourist Time!

I went to the Design Museum, which I found really disappointing. It's nestled in a cool neighborhood, just east of Tower Bridge, but the museum itself just didn't do it for me. I'd checked out their website beforehand (link above), but missed this section:

As it is currently configured the Design Museum concentrates on temporary exhibitions that cover the range of its interests, from graphic design and furniture to fashion, industrial design and architecture. Its permanent collection is based in the museum's store, and includes over 1000 pieces of contemporary and 20th century design, as well as a handling collection and a number of archives.

Ahh. There's the rub. All the neat things that were on their website that I was hoping to see: in the basement, bitches. I therefore paid £8.50 and trudged a BLOODY long way across London to see three exhibits: Design Cities, Alan Aldridge, and Patricia Urquiola's porcelain. Lovely and interesting all, but not quite enough. It was also in a bizarrely plain building - I've just checked the website and apparently the building is "elegantly modernist". Hmm.

My recommendation: skip it and spend the time in the Tate Modern or the V&A, any day.

It was, however, glorious weather for a picture of the Tower of London. I loved that my camera was blinking "underexposure" warnings at me...silly camera, I meant to do that!

Next museum: The Cabinet War Rooms. It was highly recommended by my London Walks tour guide, and I found it really interesting. Everything is restored (or was left) exactly as it was at the end of the war in 1945, and it has a real sense that everyone living and working there had planned for and accepted the fact that London might be obliterated above them. My entry ticket came with an audio guide that was really good - the segments were just long enough to give me a good picture, but not so long that I lost interest.

I found the Churchill museum interesting but extremely overwhelming - there was audio, video, blinking lights, artifacts, and general overstimulation in every direction. I was having trouble reading any of the blurbs with all the a/v going on, and didn't seem to be able to stand in one place long enough to listen to an entire interview/audio thing. I don't think I came out with a whole lot more Churchill knowledge than when I went in. It might be an idea to give it another shot.

I also managed to fit in a quick ramble through the British Museum - the Horus was his usual charming self and the Rosetta Stone was THRONGED with tourists pressing their noses against the glass. They had an exhibit on British Sculpture that I was having trouble following - there seemed to be random pieces scattered throughout the museum. I did manage to catch this model of the Angel Of The North, though. The real one is HUGE, and even in small scale it was quite impressive. I was glad that they put it in the smaller entrance hall rather than in the rotunda - it would have been lost in the bigger room, but here it gave the same sense that the big Angel gives you, blasting up the A1.

I also managed to fit in 2 walking tours: one of Kensington (very interesting AND we got to hear the 10 bells ringing called changes in St Mary Abbot's church), and a rather damp edition of Subterranean London. It was a mark of how fascinating the tour was that despite POURING rain and no umbrella (and the resulting wet feet), I stuck it out. Did YOU know that the extension of the tube lines under Westminster tube station is one of the great engineering marvels of all time? Thought not.

Thanksgivingish

I missed my blogiversary again...it was the 21st. I've been yammering away here for 3 years. Insanity!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you turkey-eating peeps out there - we had leek and potato soup for dinner, but we will be having our fill of turkey (and pumpkin pie from scratch!) on Sunday. Woohoo!

The last time I was in London, I found the world's most incongruous playground. It's nestled in between the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, and I imagine it's either for the children in the picnic area up on the bank of the Thames or it's for the children of the Beefeaters who live in the Tower. I spent a solid 5 minutes chuckling over it.  (Who is that crazy woman, standing on the side of the road, laughing to herself?)

I was driving home from rehearsal last night, listening to the repeat of Midweek, and caught her interview with Jasper Rees. Apparently he's a journalist who played horn as a child and then gave it up. He came across his horn 22 years later and decided that what he really wanted to do was play it again. So he did. And then wrote a book about it. And then the book was picked up by Radio 4 and serialized. And then he adapted it into a play. Which is now playing in the West End. Apparently even being a mediocre horn player is a road to success - there's hope for me yet!  I've reserved a copy from the library - I'm interested to read it.

I've just finished the second of the Three Cities of Bells books. This one is called "Towers in the Mist", and is a fictional account of Philip Sydney and Walter Raleigh and their time at Oxford. Sydney and Raleigh are somewhat peripheral characters, but everyone else was really well-drawn and engaging.

Perfection

Last night's concert went really well. We had a bigger-than-expected audience, and the choir was in quite good voice. As expected, soloists and orchestra were both outstanding.

I had to take this picture this afternoon from F & T's living room window - the raindrops were so pretty clinging to the clothesline. I wish I'd had the SLR (and had been less lazy and had gone outside!), but you get the idea.

I've been thoroughly enjoying Elizabeth Goudge's Three Cities of Bells. The final book (The Dean's Watch), was recommended by C, and the library only had all three books together. What a chore - I shall have to read them all. I've just finished the first one (City of Bells), and it had a great story, lots of chuckle-worthy lines, and is the perfect book to curl up with on the couch. I took it one step better and curled up with some goat cheese, red wine, and the books, on the couch. ::sigh::

I was reading by the light of our new lamp (lamps?) from Ikea - John and I were totally disappointed with the lighting section at Ikea until we spotted these on our way out. LOVE them. And they're tall enough to light up the room but low enough to read by. It's called the Barometer, in case you want to be cool like us.

Tonight in Bury: Faure Requiem

Right, you lot. There are still some seats left for tonight's performance of the Faure Requiem by the Bury Bach Choir. The concert's at 7:30 in the Cathedral, and tickets will be available on the door.

The choir is good (and bigger than it has been in a few years), the orchestra will be fab, and the soloists are always extremely good. Our conductor, Philip Reed, works at English National Opera, and seems to be able to convince ENO soloists that what they REALLY want to do on a cold weekend in November is troop up to Bury St Edmunds and sing in a concert. Fine with me!

We'll also be performing Handel's Messiah (which, believe it or not, I've never sung before) on the 20th of December in St Mary's Church. It will definitely sell out, so get your tickets now! The details of the concert are here.

Baby Sweater II

One of my college roommates had a baby back in September. When I found out they were pregnant (while I was still knitting sweater no. 1), I bought more wool.  It feels like it's taken me ages to finish, and looking back, I started it in June, so it actually HAS taken ages. I did the button band differently this time (I knitted it separately and then sewed the live stitches straight to the edge of the sweater), since I stink at picking up stitches from anything other than exactly where stitches were cast off.

I'm fully aware that Lucy Aurelia will wear it once, throw up on it, and grow out of it. But she'll look SO CUTE for the 30 seconds before she throws up.

At the rate my friends are breeding, I'm going to have to knit faster. Or start knitting smaller things. I have a friend who's pregnant with twins (ack!) and the thought of two sweaters for them plus another friend who's due around the same time sent me to the wool store in a panic.

I found a GREAT pattern sheet with three hat/mitten/bootee sets, each of which can be made with one 100g skein. I've gone for non-gender-committal pale green and blankie yellow, and will make two sets in plenty of time. I may even put a green stripe in the yellow ones and a yellow stripe in the green. All together now: awwww.

Three Cups Of Tea

I finished reading Three Cups of Tea on Thursday night, and really enjoyed it. Written by David Oliver Relin (a journalist), it tells the story of Greg Mortenson, an American climber from Montana who gets lost after failing to summit K2. He wanders into a village high in the Pakistan mountains, and ends up promising to build them a school.

 The beginning of the book read very much like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, but once the mountaineering drama was over, Relin's journalistic style and the compelling story made it impossible to put down.

I hadn't heard all that much about the book before reading it, other than the fact that it was 'brilliant', and I have to admit I was fairly worried that it was going to be another angst-ridden, torture-filled woe-is-us extravaganza. But it wasn't at all.

Yes, Mortenson is the driving force behind the schools, but it's extremely clear that none of what he's done would have happened without the dedication of many incredible locals.

Definitely recommend it!

Hooray!

Ok, I meant to post this yesterday and then ran out of time - Wednesdays can get a little hectic.  So, a day late and a dollar short:

I'm relieved that the rest of America has finally come to their senses, and looking forward to the end of Trickle-Down Economics, a pointless war, and abuse of power.

Oh, and my absentee ballot, which I registered for back in September?  Arrived on Tuesday, stating that it had to be postmarked by...wait for it...Monday.  Nice one, Westchester County.  Good thing I planned for your Epic Fail and sent in a provisional write-in absentee ballot three weeks ago.

Bizarre attachment to a logo

I needed to buy honey yesterday at Waitrose, and I fell absolutely head-over-heels for this logo. Not only did I buy it and bring it home with me, but I felt compelled to take a picture of it at breakfast this morning. The honey is quite tasty, to boot.

We ran out of candy

Last year, we had about 20 trick-or-treaters and lots of leftover candy. This year, we had lots of trick-or-treaters and NO leftover candy. I felt like an evil witch - we ran out at around 6:30. John had bought 2 bags of 25 bars, and we had so many kids that they just wired through it.

Next year, we will be prepared for the onslaught.

[Oh, and HI! to all of the visitors from Ruby!] Regulars, check out York Daily Photo.

This was the first year that we let James carve his own pumpkin. He was VERY closely supervised - he's much cuter with all of his fingers attached. He opted not to go with teeth or anything too fancy. Wise decision, my boy. He was scheduled to go trick-or-treating with a friend in Ipswich, dressed in "all black clothes, ripped if mummy will let me". Remember being 11?

I was feeling supremely girly when I carved my pumpkin. I think it was the result of spending the weekend with the BOYS. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but James' pumpkin was quite large and mine was really tiny. I made him carry his all the way to the car. ::muahaha::

Chill weekend

We had an extremely chill weekend - the weather was sort of dreary so we did some gardening and lots of cooking and some movie watching. 

Yesterday James and I planted more of the daffodil bulbs in the front yard, and we dug in some of our very own compost from the bin. I shouldn't be surprised that the peelings and scrapings and general kitchen detritus turns itself into the 'soil improver' that I pay for at the garden centre, but I always am.  I need to NOT put whole potatoes in, though, however rotten and sprouty they are - they just grow into more potatoes in the compost bin.

For all the cooking we did, we took no pictures, which is extremely sad. We roasted a leg of lamb for dinner last night, which we were really greedy about and inhaled. I was going to eat the marrow, but John was worried that I'd get something dreadful like Scrapie, so I didn't. I've looked on the interwebs and it looks like I would have been safe. Next time!

If I had a Quarter for every time...

Well, that's it. My life is complete. I rang my first quarter peal on Saturday afternoon. We did some St. Simon's, some Grandsire, and finished with Plain Bob Doubles. I rang the treble (and should be able to give you more details about how many of each method we rang but I can't).

The 'band': (l-r, below) Morris, Leslie, me, Richard, Jo, and David. My overwhelming thought during the quarter was "Are we there yet?", replaced by "Phew, we DID it!" when we finished. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. I was surprisingly nervous, which made it more difficult, since I was pulling the bell too hard and making it really heavy going for myself.

I also made brownies for the band - I figured we could either celebrate with or drown our sorrows in the chocolate, depending on the final outcome.

 We rang at Finborough - the weather was glorious and it's a really pretty church. The bells are hung a little strangely, though - they're really creaky and the ropes fall in more of a caved-in hexagon than a circle.

After my bell-stravaganza, John and I went on a date!  Dinner and a movie!  I know!!  We went to Bury for Pizza Express (yum), where the service was a little slow but the food was tasty. We had plenty of time, so we didn't mind. Then we went to see Burn After Reading, which I had no expectations for. I'm not a huge fan of Coen brothers movies - they tend to be too dark and gory for me, and I find them distinctly unfunny. I woudn't have even suggested seeing the movie, except for the fact that they filmed part of it in Sutton Manor, where I grew up.  If you've seen the movie, the house where George Clooney's character lives is about 3 minutes walk from my parents' old house. They filmed it right after I visited last summer (I could have met George Clooney!!), and I really wanted to see the neighborhood on the big screen.

It turned out to be a REALLY funny movie - John and I chortled our way through it and I was psyched that there were lots of Sutton Manor shots.

Sunday, I did more bell ringing (normal Sunday morning stuff - my blisters were pretty intense from Saturday), planted some bulbs (thanks, Mom & Dad!), and read The Penderwicks On Gardam Street. I loved this Penderwick book as much as the first one - Jeanne Birdsall has to write them faster!

Invent-a-soup

We had some leftover bacon tonight and I knew I wanted to make soup, so I looked on the interwebs and in my cookbooks for some recipes. I ended up with a recipe-less mishmash of soups that was really tasty.

I borrowed heavily from two lentil soup recipes in the Covent Garden Soup cookbook, which is SO good, and a Delia Smith lentil soup recipe.  Basically, I fried the bacon with some onions in the bottom of my soup pan, and then added carrots, celery, green lentils, veggie stock, cumin seeds, ground coriander, some chili flakes, and a can of chopped tomatoes.  Simmer until the lentils are done, and poof! Dinner!

John pronounced it 7/10 (the lentils were a little undercooked and the whole thing could have simmered for longer but we were HUNGRY). V. tasty.

I have an Amazon gift certificate that was a birthday present (thanks, M!), that I've been sort of hoarding. I NEVER buy books - it's such a special treat. I think I might have to get the new Seasonal Soup book from the Covent Garden peeps.

I shall ponder.

Sarah Palin the Post-Turtle

One of my fellow bell-ringers cut this out for me - it was in Saturday's London Times.

Word of the week: post-turtle
A 75-year-old Texas rancher recently explained this term to a country doctor. The conversation turned to the US election, and Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy, and the old rancher observed: “Well, ya know, Palin is a post-turtle.” The bemused doctor asked what a post-turtle was, and the old man replied: “When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post-turtle.” The rancher continued: “You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.”

Sufficiently true to be scary.

We rode on the highway (with no cars)

We took James on a bike ride yesterday - we went out of Stowmarket to the southwest (on the world-famous Cycle Route 51), all the way through Onehouse and into Harleston. We went down the hill towards Haughley, and under the new A14. And then found ourselves on the OLD A14 (with no cars). Rumor has it that they're going to turn it into a cycle path - I'll believe it when I see it!

Here are the boys, on the eastbound carriageway.

And here's the view from the top of the hill, again looking west:

 

After all that riding, we were hungry. John made a very tasty paella. Yum!

Two creations

First, for all of the Americans in the audience, please consider my latest creation:

And then, this week, I had this recipe for German apple cake pop up via Smitten Kitchen in my Google Reader. We're having F&T over tomorrow afternoon for tea, so I made it this afternoon (apparently it improves and is best eaten 24 hours later). John pronounced it 10/10 - it was REALLY tasty. I was a little worried because the consistency of the batter was not as liquid as I'd expected to be, but it turned out ok.

Birthday recap

Last weekend, we went on another bike ride - here's a picture looking from the Stowmarket/Needham Road to the north.

There was much excitement when we went to Tesco - this bird had flown in through an open door and was looking around for a place to perch. Sorry the picture quality isn't great - we only had the point-and-shoot and not the SLR.

Two weeks ago, I got an e-newsletter from the Kate Rusby folks, announcing her upcoming tour. I was super-psyched to see that not only was she coming to Ipswich (SO much closer than Norwich and Peterborough, where we've seen her play), but that she would be there on my birthday (this past Thursday). Obv, we had to go.

In my infinite geekyness, I emailed her record company asking to have a song dedicated to me for my birthday. And she DID! Hooray!! She played 'Where Does The Time Go', which is a single that I don't have (yet), and said that it was for "Kate, or Katie, whose birthday is today, I think. Or tomorrow, or yesterday. Anyway." I felt special. Her she is, in all her blurry awesomeness.

And here we are at the intermission - John bought me a Kate Rusby mug (since I already have a KR t-shirt)

To add to the overwhelming birthday goodness, I am also the proud owner of a new and exceedingly shiny iPhone. My contract was up and I had been coveting one for yonks, so that was that. I LOVE it, with the only drawback being that the battery life is completely crap. My old Motorola Krzr would merrily go 6 or 7 days between charges, but the iPhone barely eeks out 24 hours. I've been turning off some of the push-synching when I'm not using the phone (I don't need it to tell me I have an email at 3am), and that seems to help a bit. I'm having issues with the Apple store, too - as an American, my AppleID is registered to a US address, and so Apple can't comprehend that I might have LEFT the country. Bah. The interwebs have yielded a few suggestions - we'll see what happens. Other than that, though, it's great. Being able to sync my google calendar to wherever I am is awesome, and texting on the 'keyboard' is so much easier than on my old phone.

One final birthday thing - on Wednesday night when John's buddies came round, they brought me some gorgeous birthday flowers. Thanks, guys!! They brought a bottle of really tasty wine, too (no picture, it's all gone).