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Song of the day: “Let her go” by Passenger. Gorgeous song, if somewhat sad.

So, let’s start with a bit of news. Due to a friend wanting some place to send people interested in vegetarian cooking (in particular folks who were at the Christmas lunch I cooked for) I’ve decided to just add to the daily tasks, and opened another blog dedicated solely to cooking. Yep. I folded. Since at the moment I don’t have time to work on my cook book…at least not in a way that would have anyway, I figured I might as well put some of the recipes on the new blog and see if folks like it. I’m starting out with simple dishes, really, side dishes, soups, sandwiches, etc, just to see if there’s interest for it.

I’d love for y’all to drop by there, try them out, and give some nice tips if you have any about delicious chances you’ve thought of, or a particular dish that you just want to share. If enough of you do so, I’m definitely thinking of doing a once a week guest post with a recipe of my readers 0that I want to try myself.

So anyway, drop on by, tell me what you think of the place…right now the background is a standard one, but as soon as I can, I’m going to try to take out my camera and shoot some pics that I want to use for that. The text, as always, is a work in progress.

http://samayascooking.blogspot.com.es/

Right, that dealt with…what’s been going on since I’m back?!

Well, not a whole bloody lot. Hah…well, that’s not entirely true. Biggest news is that big brother and I decided to take the offer of friends to buy a new 2^nd hand car (the Izusu Trooper of all things- *sigh*)that we got for a very good deal. Here it is:

It’s an oldie (24 years old, I believe) which is part of the attraction, naturally. It’s basic, seeing as it doesn’t have an A/C, or anything, but that’s OK. It’s big. It’s more frugal than our beloved (Gawd, I get choked up about giving up our baby) Land Rover, and the insurance will be less costly. *sigh*

Now, the plan is for us to spend the next months fixing it up, so that we can get a better price for it.

It is a difficult choice to make, really, considering the Land Rover basically is the last thing we have from when things were still okay. It kinda feels like giving up on everything, you know. Going back yet another step in the quality of life, for no other reason than being without a steady income. Makes you wonder how deep you have to fall before finally going back up, eh? Depressing and sad, that’s what I think of it, but one does what one needs to do, right? *sigh*

Which led to this afternoon, out on the mountain, despite the miserly rain, washing the Land Rover which is set for tomorrow at the MOT. Need to have it looking a little presentable, rather than shock the mechanics, eh? Hah. Anyways, since we need to go to Malaga anyway, we also have an appointment at Traffico to finish the transfer of the new car.

Cleaning-wise there is still a lot to do. It’s as if basically only the daily used stuff has been kept clean throughout the house, while every other spot, corner, area became dirtier and dirtier. Daunting, for sure, but I’m getting to it, inch by bloody inch.

Another thing that I’m getting used to is the new bed that big brother and grandpa set up in my corner of the porch. It is about a foot narrower than my old bed (which was necessary because I could barely turn around in my “room”) and considering I’m sharing it with The Knight, Sitabah and Dax, space is…limited. Seriously, I’ve been downright wrecked in the mornings. It doesn’t help that Knight hogs the bed and insists on being under the blankets now that it’s so cold during the nights. Poor babies…all three of them. Sure, they are wonderfully warm for me, since I’m sandwiched between them, but it also means that turning is a no-go most nights. Wrecked, I tell you. Absolutely wrecked!

I did get around to unpacking part of my suitcases (not all, mind you, but at least half…I hope) so I am able to find stuff again. Got a serious storage problem going, and am unsure how to solve it. I’ve got lots of comfortable clothes that have holes and spots in and on them, which are not good for anything other than manual labor. They’re my favorites, they fit well, and the fabrics are nice and worn. Regretfully they take up space from my “better” clothes, which don’t really fit in the closet as long as I keep the comfortable ones, and that really gets my knickers in a twist, darn it.

Did some nice cooking, lately.

Made a good batch of buckwheat burgers last week, which went down well three days in a row. Same goes for chickpea patties yesterday, which served as an excellent Mcchicken (you know, the McDonalds type)…minus the chicken, hah…this afternoon.

The plan was that I would go for a hike today with a friend, but regretfully she was ill-disposed, and is spending the days with her two adorable pugs, in bed, hoping to be well enough to go to work tomorrow, poor girl.

Had a couple of workouts…day before yesterday an extremely good one. Have been sore from it for two days. Hah. Not surprising that I did the first real session, (more than an hour) in months. Maintaining isn’t at all effective in that regard, I’ll admit. But I missed training, needed it, I fear. It explains why my time in the UK was so difficult. A good kickboxing session would have gone a long way in relaxing me.

Seriously, yesterday any movement was downright excruciating, so I definitely did well.

Are well into the edits. A hundred pages, more or less, so we just might be in time to get it all done before the ABNA competition…if they’re holding it this year. Are enjoying it, especially after all this time, but the going is slow. It is difficult to get back into shwung after all this time, I guess.

Mom’s doing reasonably well. The cuts are healing, pain is getting less, and she went out a couple of times, so keeping our fingers crossed that all is well.

Went out into the yard the other day. Grandpa has been planting some winter veggies, which are doing well, all things considered…they, opposite of us, are enjoying the rainy days. Hah. Got a load of oranges hanging on the trees, not to mention tangerines, which are just weeks short of being ripe. Yay.

Knight II is not really improving, in fact I am worried when I see him move. He is rapidly losing muscle in his back legs, going through them and losing coordination. Poor boy. He’s walking into everything, loses his balance on slippery slopes, or simple inclines. I don’t like it. His age is showing, I guess.

Dax, on the other hand, is doing a lot better. Gaining strength, in fact. A relief, that.

Hauled one of the big water reservoir tanks up to the old horse paddock, where we’re going to see if we can use it to catch rainwater that’ll allow for some free veggies, come summer.

Wasn’t easy, either, considering we were experiencing some gale-force winds that day…week, actually.

Another one we need to set up for use on the main, in case we get cut off during the hottest month. I mean, seriously, can you imagine getting rationed on water while you’ve got forty something dogs around, making a mess. You need water then for more than just drinking.

Have caught up on sleep, thankfully. Slept in a couple of times, had some naps…it’s important. Haven’t gotten over the whole uncomfortable thing in the UK yet, but I guess that that will take time. Got that, at least.

Will be going to the UK for Christmas, by the way. It would be hard to get anyone to stay there who can handle the dogs, and since I feel bad about how it all went, I offered big brother and myself as replacement for five days. That way everyone is happy…well, almost everyone.

OK. It’s late. I gotta go.

Back where I started

Song of the day: “Love me again” by John Newman. Oddly enough, I would never have liked this song if I hadn’t heard it for Tom Cruise’s “Edge of Tomorrow”, for which it was absolutely brilliant.

Soooooo. Many, many things have happened over the past few weeks. Some of them awesome, some of them not so, and others pretty darn horrid. Let’s start with the good stuff and see if we can ignore the last bits, eh? Hah.

First of all, on the 22nd of November I went to my first Bryan Adams concert. Yep. Been waiting for that since the whole Hipodromo scandal in 2007, and now I just had to go for it, or forever stop whining about it. So I went. Yes!!! It was at the O2 in London, and I got off at work early enough to head on out, find a parking spot and have a nice pizza with mango ice cream for dessert, before it was time to go stand in line. I had my tablet with me, so the waiting was no bother whatsoever.
When acquiring the tickets, there was some fear that the seat would be too far away from the stage, but as it turned out I got extremely lucky. Not only was my seat some odd eighty feet from the stage and high enough for me to be on the exact level of the stage, nope, it also turned out that my ticket got me into the pre-show American Express Lounge, which was an experience, to say the least, not to mention comfortable.
It was an extremely exhilarating experience, I’ll say that much for it. I knew all the songs, so I sang my heart out all evening, cheering and clapping like the best of ‘m, and I had a blast. If nothing else, the concert on itself made my stay in the UK worth it.

Which brings us to one of the less nice points. I am back in Spain, without work, once again, but I have to admit that I mind it less than I should have. Those last few weeks had been rather heavy, stressful and emotionally draining for me. I think it had partly to do with being torn between two worlds, but also because I discovered that being a live-in is far from easy. There is too much collision of characters, I suppose, and considering my hostess was fond of her privacy as well, it was bound to go wrong at some point, wasn’t it? Regrets and dissatisfaction make people say nasty things, and some were definitely hurled my way, meaning that I feeling slightly dented, if you know what I mean. I will need some time to heal, regain my balance and some of my confidence.

It was a rather sudden thing, I know, but what with the mounting tension these past few weeks, I took the out I was offered gratefully. I had my ticket already for a trip home, so all it meant was packing my luggage (couldn’t take it all, because big brother had left some stuff there as well) and cleaning up my room, and then spending the remainder of the evening with my co-workers.
Was a nice evening with wine and talk, and saying goodbye to the dogs there, before we took out my luggage and I returned to my room for the night.

Didn’t get much sleep, lying awake most of it. Only two hours before it was time to get up I drifted off and even then it was fretful rest at best. Got myself ready, gathered my carryon and purse, and was on my way in less than thirty minutes. Had to arrive at the airport early to pay for my luggage, and go through customs, and all that jazz. Afterward I managed to get some reading done while waiting for my plane to arrive. Did the same throughout my flight, besides talking to my fellow passenger; a very nice fellow from Pakistan who was going on a three day vacation to Spain. Did manage a short nap, which was very necessary.

Arrived in Spain on time for my appointment with a local shop owner for whom I agreed to cook a company Christmas lunch on the 29th. I met with her at the store, and she was extremely nice about it all. I got the budget I needed, and went straight to the store to get the ingredients for the next day’s cooking job.

Did what prep work I could in the evening, like my pumpkin compote, real Greek yogurt, and the right selection of veggies and dairy products. Had a total of five pages stored in the car the next morning, and was on my way on the dot, to arrived there at the appointed time.

For the remainder of the morning Tina (she’s that friend I went on a hike with some months ago) spent in the kitchen, cutting, prepping and cooking an elaborate lunch that was, much to my pleasure, completely vegetarian. I made my Hallmark Chickpea patties, which were a big success. Also my buckwheat burgers (based on a recipe I got from Maggie…thank you Maggie!), which were loved, even by the carnivores there. Hah.
Made stuffed red bell peppers with veggies, herbs and cottage cheese. Bout ninety percent of these went, while my stuffed tomatoes with the same cottage cheese base and added mushrooms and black rice…even had some of the filling left, which I mixed with extra black rice and which the guests really liked.
From the leftover tomato filling I made a rather nice brown sauce, and served a yogurt salad dressing that was devoured with huge enthusiasm…in case you’re wondering, I was invited to stay for dinner, so I got to see everyone’s responses; very gratifying…
Added to that, there were the stuffed eggs, and boy were they popular. Ten guests devoured 24 eggs after all, so I would say that they worked out well. Hah.
The main course was an oven dish of potatoes with roughly cut veggies and loads of herbs.
I made too much, of course, considering I forgot to ask what the male/female ratio was. Turns out there were nine women and only on men, which means a lot less consumption. *sigh* Luckily I was well below budget with the buying of the produce, so it didn’t matter all that much. As it stands, the lady in charge won’t be needing to cook for several days. Hah.

Was of course properly exhausted that night, but I got to bed early and went to bed late, and woke up “not tired” for the first time in months. My dogs loved it…so did I, for that matter.

Which reminds me…as a surprise, big brother and grandpa put in a new bed for me while I was gone. A nice hospital style antique, that regretfully, was a lot narrower than my old queen size. I had agreed to narrow, mind you, knowing that I’d need the space, but still, for the past few mornings I’ve been kinda wrecked because Knight II is determined to sleep by my side with his spine in the width of the bed. And Dax either wants to be on the other side, or between my ankles, while Sitabah wants her spot somewhere near my head. *sigh*

What else…well, for what it is worth I did a rather nice restoration on a three legged chair, back in the UK. Also, big brother and I put in a rather nice circular piece of outside tiling. A circle and cross of ceramic rectangular, along with three quarters of gray slate stone. It looked rather fancy.

There were supports that we hammered into the ground for a rather endless row of conifers. There was fencing to be fixed, stuff to be cleaned, and, most importantly, woodwork to be prepared for what was going to be the greenhouse. Got most of the prep-work done, but alas, that will now be up to someone else.

As to my time there…I learned some valuable lessons, made some good friends, had a grand adventure, so on the overall I can’t say that I regretted it. It was an experience that has taught me many things, so in the scheme of life being one big lesson, I don’t think it was bad for me at all.
Still, I wouldn’t have minded it to be a little less traumatic. Hah.

Well, that is all for now, I guess.
Right now I am back with my dogs, doing a proper cleanup of a place that has turned into a proper pigsty. Been doing some serious cleaning for two days now, and am not seeing the end of it yet. Seriously, you’re away for three months and everything is a complete and utter mess. Guess I am not as dispensable as I thought I was.

Gotta go. It’s getting to be a tad late.
I’ll be back.

Housebound

Song of the day: “Crazy” by Patsy Klein. Still a good song.

So…the past few weeks have been heavy for as far as I’m concerned. Doing long days, having very little time for myself, and basically just muddling through the days only to shlog into the evenings waiting to go to bed. Babysitting an invalid dog isn’t easy by any means, and the past couple of weeks proved as much. Seriously, it is a heavy responsibility, which makes my present visit to Spain a welcome relief.

Yep, once again I am writing from a, at the moment, sunny Spain. Yesterday it was a miserable day weather wise. Our mountain was in the clouds, rain came pouring down and everything was dreary. This is much better. I’m sitting outside. Doggies all around me. Just finished cutting bread for their food, and they are content with the bits and pieces they thought to steal from me. Hah.

The flight: Well, it was a near thing. I left at 2:30, which should have given me plenty of time to reach the airport, but then we got into a traffic jam by the tunnel under the river, meaning that I arrived at the airport about thirty minutes before my gate closed. I did a lot of running, which was no fun since I’d been in the car for almost three hours, which aggravates my foot problem. Aaaargh.

Luckily customs went fast, and I arrived at my gate about 1 minute before it closed…which didn’t matter all that much because I had to stand in line to board for a good fifteen minutes, and there even were people behind me, so maybe I didn’t need to worry as much as I did.

The flight was uneventful. I spent the majority of it reading, really. Nothing like a three hour flight to work your way through your book list. Didn’t have a chatty passenger beside me, which was a pity. Always nice to pass the time talking a bit, but these two seemed completely absorbed in each other, if the leg rubbing going on beside me was any indication.

Though the plan had been for little brother to pick me up at the airport, something had gone wrong in the planning, everybody thought I was going to arrive on Wednesday, and when it turned out I was coming Thursday, he was unable to pick me up. So there was some concern as to how I was going to get home. Personally I didn’t much fancy the idea of having to take the train to the city, and then a taxi home around midnight, so I pleaded my case with a friend, who thankfully could come pick me up…am taking her out to dinner tonight as a thank you. We’ve agreed on a huge pizza, preferably eaten outside somewhere because I want to take Knight II along…something she fully understands seeing as she is a dog nut as well.

As to the time before my flight…well, besides the babysitting there was the planting of bamboo, digging ditches (most of it with big brother helping out, mind you) sorting out big machinery, vacuuming, cleaning, washing up, doing laundry cooking and all those pesky things that come with being housebound.

I did get to a little bit of wood work, and managed to restore a rather pretty antique wooden chest that had lost one paw to woodworm. Removed most of the damaged area, replaced it with new oak, then sanded the whole bit, filled up the gaps with wood filler, sanded the lot again, which was when the fun bit came: Painting. Considering that the color wasn’t like the two types of paint I had available, I had to do some fancy footwork to get it to look original, but succeeded, which was very satisfying.
A bit of bad news is that my mum fell a couple of weeks ago and broke her ankle, which was most unfortunate. She spent a couple of days in hospital, a triple break is nothing to sneeze at after all, and is now bed-bound for at least six weeks. Nothing is quite as frustrating as being a few thousand miles away during a family emergency, I tell ya.
But anyway, they all managed, and that is all that matters in the end.

Daxie has improved a lot since I last visit, thankfully. He seems a bit weak in the hips still, but almost his old self again. A big relief that.

As for the other dogs…big brother’s in this case, it’s great to see them again. Got Arthur on the table beside my computer right now, Knight on the floor in the sunshine, and the rest scattered in close proximity. All of them content to snooze in the sun.

Cooking wise I’ve done quite a bit of experimenting...in particular with meat. Yep. I have successfully prepared lamb chops, pork chops, steak, mince meat and bacon, so that’s not too bad. All of it was edible, some even a big success, so that’s good.

Writing wise I’ve done very little. Added maybe half a page to the “Gun” story, for which I have plenty ideas tumbling through my mind, but I need some mental stability and less exhaustion to do that. Maybe soon, I don’t know.

As to everything else, there are daily things I could jammer on about, I guess, just as I could whine and complain at how difficult I find it sometimes to be away from my dogs, and living in someone else’s house where you just never feel quite comfortable, do you. Ah well. Such is life at the moment, and I can either feel bad about it, or accept it.

Well, that’s it for now. I only have a limited amount of time here with my doggies, and I would like to squeeze in some time to clean out my sleeping corner, because, let’s face it, it’s a mess.
Gotta go.

Muddling through

Song of the day: “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus with Jimmy Fallon and Roots. Heard it yesterday. It’s completely A Capella. Very cute. Took me by surprise, really.

I know, I’ve been slacking in my blogging duties. But seriously, often when I get to bed I’m too tired to do more than stare at my computer screen, maybe chat a little, and then I basically pass out for the night. The thing is, I can’t even write this thing in one go, been trying to get it done for three days now, so…Anyways…

It doesn’t help that I worry a lot about Dax, who isn’t doing much better, but big brother and grandpa are doing their utmost to keep him from doing more damage. The little bugger is making a nuisance of himself. The moment they turn their backs, he’s trying to get on the tables, cupboards, counters, roof, walls and out into the yard. Apparently he’s a handful…of course.

As for the bad news, a good friend of mine was in hospital last week with a terrible case of shingles. She’s back home now, and hopefully doing a lot better. (Best wishes to you Mags!)

What have I been up to, I hear you wonder…well, for a while it was us again. Big brother was here for a whopping five days, which made work a lot more pleasant. There was a lot to do, including mowing of the lawn, working with the animals, and loads of repairs. Actually wasn’t tired for a day or two there, seeing as the load was divided for a change.

Been doing some woodwork, which kept me semi-sane, for as far as that is possible, anyway. Nothing can quite keep the mind occupied as figuring out how to put a piece of furniture together. It was good…that and starting on an inventory so everyone knows what is where and what we have.

The woodwork was two small pedestals for PCs. They’re identical, they’re stable, so that works. Added to that I’ve made brackets in the shed, where we can store the wood away from any flooding which tends to come into the shed when hard rains come in from the east.

Been having very little time for myself lately, so not a lot of writing got done. I’m hoping that after this blog I’ll be able to do at least something, seeing as today was not a maintenance day, but working with animals instead…including cleaning, but that’s not too bad. It’s a nice change, and at least I’ve been able to give my feet some down time.

The weather is turning, winter rapidly approaching. It’s been raining a lot. And there are lots of clouds. I did see the sun occasionally, which was bliss, but on the overall it is just gray with lots of green that is slowly turning yellow with autumn. I’m not doing too badly, concerning the drop in temperature. I mean, I’m wearing sweaters now, over flannel shirts and tops, but still, I’m not whining too much, and when the cold gets too much for me, I just roll into the bathtub until I feel warm again. *sigh*

Have been doing some reading on my tablet. Jennifer Crusie, mostly, since big brother stocked up on those when he gave it to me. Only two or three more of her to go and then I’ll start on the Amanda Quick’s I think.

Been doing fence work, which was definitely one of the highlights this week.
Big brother was still here, and the rain hadn’t started yet, not much anyway, so we got a nice amount done. About ninety feet of fence, dug into the earth about 1 foot. I liked it. Fencing, for some peculiar reason, always feels very satisfying.

Do have a rather disturbing thing going at the moment. Yesterday, during the night, every time I turned in my sleep I’d wake up dizzy as heck. Have been nauseous ever since, and nothing seems to be helping much, least of all this faint, pounding headache in the front of my skull. Wish I had dried Juniper berries, that at least would take care of the nausea.
Can’t help but wonder what it is, though. Stress? A bug? Whichever the case, it is vastly annoying.

Worked on getting an Aga fired up…wasn’t easy either, but I got it done…thankfully. Haven’t had time to cook on it, though, which should happen soon enough…like tomorrow. Got it on Friday, which was fish and chips day (for me spring roll and chips, but what the hey. LOL) and then today there were veggies that had to be used, while I wasn’t at the main house to cook. *sigh* Wasn’t happy with today’s meal either. The taste wasn’t good enough. Needed a sauce but I didn’t feel like making it.

Been hosing down terraces again, and a wooden pergola, which I’ve got clean about a quarter. Luckily it goes rather well with the high pressure machine. A lot of work, though, not to mention that it is bound to leave the one doing it soaking wet. *sigh*

Trimmed some plants, bound up roses, did loads of walking, which would explain why my feet are killing me again…also, I decided to start drinking a little less wine, and since that has anti-inflammatory properties, that might have something to do with it. I could of course just start again, but seriously, a bottle of wine a day is not a dependency I want to deal with at the moment. Added to that, even though it is nice to be numb in the evening, it does not improve on my state of mind during the course of the day. *sigh*

Don’t have a lot else to talk about. My mind is still an emotional wreck, but that is nothing new, my body apparently as well (duh) so…I guess I’ll just have to muddle on through and see where it’ll all get me, eh?

I’ll keep you informed.